Throwing off the Chains of Fate
by QueenOfDragons2
Summary: All Goro wanted at this point was to get through school, care for Futaba, and take revenge on Shido. He didn't expect someone like Ren Amamiya getting involved in his life. It turns out to not be so bad after all. AU where Goro meets Wakaba before he can start working for Shido. (Crossposted on AO3.)
1. Arriving at Tokyo

**Inspired by "Find the Answer Sheet" by Hinarah59 and "One-Colored Promise" by Solpheri (both on AO3).**

Ren couldn't help but find it funny: he had found just about everything in the backstreets of Yongen-Jaya _except_ Sakura-san's house. He had found a bath house, a clinic, a café, a second-hand shop, some apartments, and even a closed movie theater. He almost laughed when he finally found it in an alleyway beyond the apartments.

Ren ran the doorbell and waited. Just when it started to seem like nobody was going to answer, the door opened and a young man with light brown hair stepped out.

The man stared at him for a moment before saying, "Can I help you?"

"…Is Sakura-san here?"

The man looked over Ren, as if scrutinizing him. "…Sakura-san is at Leblanc. Do you need directions?"

"No," Ren said, adjusting his bag. "I passed it on the way here. And even if I hadn't, I think the signs would be enough."

The man gave a dry chuckle. "That's true."

"Oh hey, since you're here," said a deliveryman that suddenly appeared, "could you take this?"

The man took a package out of the deliveryman's hands. "Sure. I'll let him know." He looked at Ren, who was still standing there. "Well go on."

Ren faltered for a moment before turning around and leaving.

0~*~0

Upon opening Leblanc's door, Ren was struck by how busy it was. Almost all the seats were full. Most of the customers were older adults, though he could see a group of girls in the booth farthest from the door. Despite how busy it was, it was quiet enough for Ren to hear the TV in the far corner.

" _A public transit bus was driven down an opposing lane with its customers still in it! The citizens can't live in peace if this keeps up."_

He slowly walked up to the counter and waited for the middle-aged man who seemed to be the manager to notice him.

Upon noticing him, the manager said, "What'll it be?"

"Is Sakura-san here?" Ren asked.

The manager did another look-over of Ren. "…Oh, right. They did say that was today." He motioned towards the back. "Head on upstairs. I'll be with you as soon as I can."

The manager then went back to working on customers' orders, Ren presumed. He did as the man said and went to the back, passing the booth with girls on the way, finally realizing they were wearing Shujin uniforms. He noticed a girl with a red highlight in her black hair staring at him, but didn't linger long enough to notice much else. He went up the stairs and was immediately confronted by the sight of a dusty, cluttered attic.

In the middle of the attic was a box, and a quick peek inside showed that it was Ren's stuff from home. Looking around a bit more, Ren noticed that the only clean thing in the room was a small desk with dust masks on it.

Ren sighed. _Looks like I'll have to do the rest myself…_

He honestly wanted to change into more comfortable clothing, but he had no way of knowing how long it would be before the manager came up, and it would be _really_ awkward if he came upstairs while Ren was changing.

After waiting long enough for Ren to get bored enough to sit on the couch and start playing on his phone, the manager finally came upstairs.

The man sighed. "That took longer than I expected… Anyway, I'm Sojiro Sakura. You'll be in my custody over the next year. A customer of mine and your parents know each other and- Well, not that that matters." Sakura-san made a general gesture to the room around them. "This is your room. I'll at least give you sheets for your bed." A pause. "You look like you wanna say something."

"Did you give me those dust masks, too?" Ren asked.

"No, I think that was Goro," said Sakura-san.

Ren raised an eyebrow. "Goro?"

Sakura-san looked as if he just realized he had said something he hadn't meant to. "He's… He occasionally helps out here, so you'll probably see him pretty often. Anyway, it's on you to clean up the rest of the place. I'll be leaving after I lock up each day. You'll be alone at night, but don't do anything stupid. I'll throw you out if you cause any trouble."

Ren meekly nodded.

"Now then, I got the gist of your situation. You protected some woman from a man forcing himself on her, he got injured, then sued you. Right?"

Ren noticed movement on the stairs, but decided against mentioning it.

"That's what you get for sticking your nose in a matter between two adults. You did injure him, yeah? And now that you've got a criminal record, you were expelled from your high school. The courts ordered you to transfer and move out here, which your parents also approved. In other words-" He suddenly stopped and turned towards the stairs, but nobody was there. He shook his head and continued. "It's best not to talk about anything unnecessary. I am in the restaurant business, you know. Behave yourself for the year. If nothing happens, your probation will be lifted. Cause any problems, and you'll be sent straight to juvie."

"I understand, sir," Ren said.

"We'll be going to Shujin tomorrow."

Ren nodded. He was… pretty sure that was where he would be going to school, but he didn't exactly feel like asking.

"We'll introduce ourselves properly to the staff there." Sakura-san fidgeted uncomfortably. "Your 'luggage' arrived earlier; I left them over there," he said, motioning towards the box.

He then left, muttering, "I swear, even when he's not here…"

Ren stood up, waiting until he was fairly sure Sakura-san had gone back down the stairs before getting some clothes out of the box and changing into something more comfortable. He then put on one of the dust masks and set about cleaning the room.

 _At least that table's already done…_

Partway through cleaning, Ren again noticed movement at the top of the stairs. He walked over to investigate and saw the girl that had been staring at him sitting on the stairs, looking as if she had been trying to discreetly spy on him.

Ren was quickly struck by her appearance. Her eyes were blue, almost unnaturally so, and the long black hair framing her face made it seem paler than it already was. She might've seemed ethereal were it not for her somewhat awkward position.

"Need some help with cleaning?" she asked quietly.

Ren would've jolted if she had been louder. "N-No, I'm fine."

"You're going to go to Shujin, right?"

Ren nodded.

"That's where I go to school. I'm a third-year there."

"Hey! What are you doing!? Get down from there!" Sakura-san's voice called from upstairs.

The girl looked somewhat pained as she stood up and said, "I'll see you at school," before going back downstairs.

Ren heard Sakura-san talking, presumably to the girl, but he couldn't hear what was being said. He went back to cleaning, unable to stop thinking about her. It would be nice to already know someone going into his new school.

0~*~0

 _He's moved in._

 _ **Who?**_

 _That Amamiya guy, obviously!_

 _ **Oh. Him.**_

… _You don't look surprised._

 _ **He stopped by earlier looking for Sojiro.**_

 _Wait, really? It wasn't the delivery guy?_

 _ **He was there too.**_

… _Wh-! Hey, are you trying to distract me!?_

 _ **Maybe. Or maybe looking away from the screen while playing a racing game isn't a good idea.**_

…

 _ **Wh-! Hey! All right, you asked for it!**_

 _Ack! N-Not there! That's cheating!_

0~*~0

The trip to Shujin Academy had gone… slightly worse than Ren was hoping, but he wasn't surprised. At least Sakura-san seemed to sympathize a little. Hopefully, his experience with the other students would be better.

"Traffic's not moving at all…" Sakura-san groaned as they sat in his car. "You're taking the train starting tomorrow."

Ren nodded.

"…So how was it? The school, I mean. Think you can manage?"

Ren didn't look at him. "…We'll see."

"…Now listen up. Don't even think of doing anything stupid. Still, you were expelled once already. To think you'd re-enroll at a different one. It's not like anyone will be sympathetic with you. …If that's what it was like at school, people might say stuff about me in the future too… What a troublesome kid I've taken in…"

"Why did you take me in?" Ren hesitantly asked.

"I was asked to do it, and I just… happened to agree to it. I've already been paid for it too, after all."

 _P-Paid!?_

A voice on the radio interrupted Ren's thoughts. _"Again, a subway has derailed at Shibuya Station, greatly affecting the timetable all across the—"_

Sakura-san groaned. "…Another accident? So that's why it's so crowded. There's been a lot of those lately."

Their mostly one-sided conversation lulled, and the two sat in silence for several minutes.

Eventually, Ren decided to ask the question that had been on his mind for a while. "Um… How exactly do you and Goro-san know each other?"

Sakura-san gave an amused huff. "I met him through a… longtime friend of mine a while back. He's like a son to me."

The slight fondness Ren heard in his voice wasn't reflected in his expression.

So Ren decided to do something risky. "Is that why he was at your house yesterday?"

Sakura-san jolted and quickly turned to face Ren. "Why were you at my house?"

"I was looking for you."

His expression softened. "Oh… Right…"

There was a long pause. Too long.

"So, um…" Ren started.

Sakura-san seemed to think hard before answering. "I was expecting a delivery to my house, so I asked him to wait there so he could take it inside."

Ren had to admit it sounded plausible, at least on the surface, so he decided to not press the issue.

0~*~0

The sun had set by the time they finally got back to Leblanc, far too late to open the café. Ren couldn't help but feel guilty until he saw that the sign was flipped to "open." Once they entered, Ren quickly saw the young man from the day before behind the counter, wearing an apron.

"Thanks for opening the shop today," Sakura-san said to the man. "Hope the day wasn't too hard on you."

The man flashed a made-for-TV smile. "Nothing I couldn't handle."

"Glad to hear that."

The man took off the apron and gave a passing glance at Ren as he left.

Upon seeing Ren's quizzical expression, Sakura-san said, "I asked him to open the shop for me if we didn't get back in time."

"So that was Goro-san?"

"…Yeah. As I said, you'll probably see him pretty often over the year. Now head upstairs. There's something I need to give to you."

Ren nodded and did as he was told.

0~*~0

The next day, as Ren left Leblanc to go to school, his gaze was quickly captured by a splash of orange several feet to his left. It was a somewhat short, nervous-looking girl with orange hair that went down to her hips. Next to her was Goro-san, who was crouched down to her height and had a hand on her shoulder, as though trying to comfort or reassure her. They both wore Shujin uniforms and were facing away from Ren.

After a minute or so, Goro-san straightened and the girl clung to his arm as they began to walk off.

Ren moved after them. If they were going to the same place he was, he might as well follow them.

0~*~0

The girl seemed to hesitate at the sight of the crowded train, but Goro-san silently pushed her forward. Ren barely got through the doors in time, ending up a few feet away from them in the train. The girl stared out the window almost determinedly while Goro-san did something on his phone, seemingly unaffected by the train's swaying.

Ren glanced around. _There are so many people crammed into this tiny car… It turns out the rumors about the Tokyo subway are true…_ He looked up. _They're showing the news up on the LCD screen… It seems like there are still some lingering effects of yesterday's accident…_

0~*~0

Ren followed the two of them through Shibuya station and the Teikyu building to the Ginza line and ended up uncomfortably close to them once they got on the train. As in, his and Goro-san's shoulders were practically touching. Ren hoped that the awkwardness he felt wasn't mutual.

The girl was once again all but pressing her face against the window, and, through her reflection, Ren finally noticed the large glasses she was wearing, along with what looked like a small bundle of cherry blossoms on the right side of her head.

Ren glanced back up, noticed Goro-san staring at him, and quickly looked away. He hoped the train ride wouldn't be too long…

"We're not gonna get into an accident," said a girl's voice, "are we?"

"…I think we'll be okay," replied Goro-san, sounding somewhat unsure.

0~*~0

After what was probably less time than Ren felt it was, the train finally stopped at their destination and Ren left the car a bit faster than was likely necessary.

He stopped and looked around a bit. _This is Aoyama-Itchome… It took some time, but I finally made it…_

As Ren walked to the ticket gate, he overheard some people mentioning rain, and sure enough, it was raining outside. Goro-san unzipped his school bag and fished out an umbrella, and he and the girl walked off together under it. Ren honestly felt tempted to ask to join them, but trying to fit three people under an umbrella of that size would've been awkward at best, and it seemed weird to get that needlessly close to two strangers, so he instead took refuge under a store awning.

Ren decided to bring up the map on his phone to double-check his route, only to quickly discover that the weird eye-app thingy he had tried to delete three times had once again appeared on his phone.

Ren sighed. He had a feeling it just wasn't going to be his day.

 **Feel free to ask questions, but be forewarned: even innocuous questions may be connected to huge spoilers.**

 **I will not be including scenes that are identical to what happens in the game, unless people demand that for some reason.**

 **I've already finished the second chapter, and it'll be up in about a week.**

 **(Also, I swear that posting this on Valentine's Day wasn't something I had meant to do.)**


	2. Shujin Academy

**I gotta admit, it threw me for a loop when I found out that Shujin's school year started on April 6** **th** **(I don't have the game).**

Goro quickly noticed that Amamiya had stopped following them, though he wasn't all that surprised. It was raining, after all, and it was fairly likely that Amamiya hadn't brought an umbrella with him.

Still, as long as it didn't make Amamiya late for school, Goro saw no reason to worry about it. After all, he had something much more personally important for him to worry about.

Futaba somehow tightened her grip on his wrist as they passed an increasing number of students. Her anxiety was as he expected, but it was an improvement from the first day of school. Still, the fact that she was even going to high school in the first place was a miracle, even if he would rather that she had gone somewhere else…

They arrived at school before Goro could pursue that line of thought any further, and once they were in the entrance hall, Futaba let go of him and disappeared up the nearest stairwell.

Seconds later, an annoying voice rang out from down the hallway. "Isshiki-kuuuuuuuuuuun!"

Goro sighed and turned to face the girl running down the hallway towards him. A girl with blue eyes and a red highlight in her long, black hair.

"Good morning, Koizumi-san," he said stiffly.

"Anything significant happen on Sunday?" she asked, leaning forward and tilting her head.

"To me personally, no."

She puckered her lips, giving him a disapproving look.

"Anyway, regarding that favor I asked…"

She straightened up. "The rumors have taken root. If they don't deter the first-years from Kamoshida, nothing will."

"Excellent."

0~*~0

The day was uneventful for Goro. He still found it unfortunate that none of the people he was close-ish to were in his class, but he would make do.

He studiously took notes, did his best to smile for the people that inevitably talked to him during lunch break, and held a surprisingly engaging conversation with a boy about shooting games.

"I gotta say, Isshiki-kun," said the boy, "you don't seem like the kinda guy who'd be into video games."

"You'd be right about that," Goro said.

The boy worked his jaw for a bit, apparently not having expected that answer. "Th-Then…"

Goro, anticipating the boy's question, said, "A certain someone I know is obsessed with them, and I'm often roped into playing." He couldn't stop the genuinely fond smile that crept onto his face.

"Who?"

Before Goro could answer, the lunch bell rang.

"Ah, my apologies," Goro said. "It seems we'll have to continue this conversation another time."

As soon as the last bell rang, Goro got a text.

 **Mari:** Guess what?

 **Goro:** What?

 **Mari:** Sakamoto and the transfer kid didn't show up until lunchtime.

Goro raised an eyebrow.

 **Goro:** Really?

 **Mari:** I also heard they showed up together.

 **Mari:** I'm gonna try to get answers out of Sakamoto.

 **Goro:** Good luck.

Goro was definitely curious about what on Earth could have happened after he had separated from Amamiya, but he saw no reason to worry too much about it yet. Goro pocketed his phone, left the classroom, and waited by the stairwell for Futaba. She had insisted that he do so, as she lacked the confidence to go home by herself. So he waited for her.

No matter how long she took to come down.

0~*~0

Futaba took a deep, steadying breath before going down the stairs, passing a glasses-wearing boy with black hair heading up on the way.

 _Mission "Get information on Kamoshida" start!_

The first thing that caught Futaba's eye upon reaching the second floor was a pathetic-looking blue-haired boy directly in front of her. She marched up to him, took a deep breath, and pointed at him.

"You!"

The boy looked up at her, his sad expression not changing. "Yes?"

"Are you on the volleyball team?"

"Yes…"

She lowered her arm. "I need to talk to you."

"About what?"

She glanced around and lowered her voice. "About things that would be better off discussed somewhere where we can't be overheard. Know a place like that?"

"Uh… I think the roof would work…"

"Great. Let's go."

"Now?"

"Now."

"All right…"

Futaba turned around and strode up the stairs, the boy slowly following behind. What she was currently doing would normally be unthinkable for her, but as long as she thought of it as a game mission, she would be mostly okay. The timidness of the boy also helped.

Upon reaching the door to the roof, she slowly turned the handle and opened the door… and almost slammed it shut.

Seeing her reaction, the boy said, "What's wrong?"

"There are two guys on the roof," Futaba whispered. "Guess we'll have to wait."

The two of them stood around in silence until the door suddenly opened to reveal a boy with short blond hair who nearly jumped at the sight of them.

"Uh…" He quickly glanced between them. "Were you two listening in on us…?"

"Nope," Futaba said quickly. "Now move along. We have need of this rooftop."

The blond-haired boy glanced between the two of them again before heading down the stairs. Futaba looked at the boy still on the roof.

"Come on, you too. Get going."

The boy blinked a few times before doing as she said and leaving. The moment he was on the stairwell, Futaba grabbed the arm of the boy next to her and hauled him onto the roof, closing the door behind her.

Once they had sat down, the boy on a chair and Futaba on a desk, the boy asked, "So… What'd you want to talk about?"

"I want information on Kamoshida. Where's his office? Where and when does he hold volleyball practice?"

"Are… Are you interested in joining the volleyball team…?"

"I wouldn't join even if the coach _wasn't_ a physically abusive rapist."

The boy jolted upright, all traces of submissiveness replaced by surprise. "Wh… If you knew that about him, then why did you come here!?"

Futaba looked down at her skirt. "For… reasons… A-Anyway, just answer my questions."

The boy scrutinized her for a few moments before slouching. "All right. Just… don't do anything too reckless."

Futaba simply moved on to asking her questions, where Kamoshida's office was, where volleyball practice was held, and where he would typically beat people. She quietly absorbed the information as the boy answered. It admittedly made her increasingly unsure if her plan was a good idea, but she was determined to do it.

"He won't be in his office during the volleyball rally, right?"

"I'm… pretty sure he won't. I think we'll have practice afterwards too…"

"Okay," Futaba said, getting off the desk. "That's all I wanted to know."

"What exactly do you plan on doing with that information?"

"…Worst comes to worst, I think you'll want plausible deniability."

He looked surprised, but not confused. "'Plausible deniability…?'"

"No more questions!" she said before dashing out the door and down the stairs.

She gave a tired sigh upon reaching the third floor and checked her phone. She had made Goro wait long enough. After double-checking that she had everything, she went down the stairs and upon reaching the first floor was quickly greeted by the sight of Goro practically surrounded by girls.

She stifled a chuckle as Goro noticed her and gently pushed through the small crowd while saying, "Sorry, I need to get going now."

As the girls audibly expressed their disappointment, Futaba grabbed Goro's arm and pulled him towards the entrance, eager to get home.

She could almost feel the girls' stares on her as she left.

0~*~0

"Hear anything about that Amamiya guy?" Futaba asked.

Goro didn't look up from the ramen he had made for dinner. "He and another student didn't arrive until lunchtime."

"…Amamiya has black hair and glasses, right?"

"Yeah."

Futaba stirred her ramen. "Did the other student have bleached blond hair?"

Goro looked up. "Yes. Did you see him?"

"I think he was talking with Amamiya about something. Not sure what, though."

Almost as if on cue, Goro's phone went off. It was a text from Koizumi.

 **Mari:** Tried to get info from Sakamoto. No luck.

"That Sojiro?" Futaba asked.

"Nah, it's just some girl I happen to know," Goro said as he typed a reply.

 **Goro:** What did he say?

 **Mari:** At first he gave some half-assed excuses then he was really evasive then he said I wouldn't believe him. I dropped it after that.

"You rarely just happen to know people," Futaba said.

"She's very useful when it comes to rumors," Goro said, "so being in communication with her seemed advantageous."

Futaba scrunched up her face. "Spreading rumors or finding out what rumors are going around?"

"Both."

"Do you really need to be able to…" Futaba thought for a moment. "Actually, you probably do."

Goro nodded. Both of them knew full well the hell school could be.

0~*~0

"Have you HEARD some of the rumors about the new kid!?" Koizumi all but screamed. "I've been trying to do damage control, but some of them are absolutely _RIDICULOUS_!"

Goro half-listened to her ranting as they slowly walked to his class. He had heard some of them on the way to school, and while he did agree that they were excessive, especially since he knew the truth, he wasn't all that concerned about it. It just meant he would have to take caution when talking to Amamiya around other students.

"Are you even listening to me?" Koizumi asked.

"Yes."

"What was the last thing I said?"

"A friend of yours had heard that the transfer student was supposedly selling drugs."

Koizumi blinked. "…Guess you _were_ listening. I gotta split. See you later."

She gave an offhand wave as she jogged off to her own classroom.

Goro gave a soft sigh. She was so different from what she had been like when he had first arrived…

-October 6, 2014-

"Today I'd like to introduce to you all a transfer student: Goro Isshiki. Please say something to the class."

Goro gave a slight bow. "Hello. I hope we all get along."

"He's so pretty…!" one of the girls mumbled dreamily.

Goro couldn't help but crack a smile.

"Let's see, your seat will be…" The teacher scanned the room. "Over there, in the back."

She pointed to an empty seat next to the windows facing out in the third row from the back. Goro calmly walked over and quickly noticed that in the seat next to his was a sour-faced girl with a red highlight in her long black hair and unnaturally blue eyes. She seemed to be glaring at him, but he couldn't tell what emotion her expression was supposed to convey.

She continued to glance at him throughout the day, never speaking to him. He didn't think that much of it; it was just unusual, especially compared to how the other girls in the class acted towards him.

Later that day, as he was at his shoe locker, he felt a hand grab his arm and he turned to see the girl there, glaring at him.

She let go of his arm and said, "Something about you… pisses me off!"

When she failed to continue, Goro said, "What, specifically, about me irritates you?"

"I don't know! And that pisses me off even more! And the worst part is that I feel like I'm pissed off _for_ you instead of _at_ you and I don't know why! _You're making me feel things I don't know how to deal with!_ "

She then stormed off, fuming.

Goro and everyone else that had overheard her stared after her even after she was out of sight.

Goro heard a girl next to him sigh and say, "I'm really sorry about Koizumi-san."

Goro, not looking to see who had said that, said, "It's fine. That was one of the most… unusual conversations I've had in a while."

-0~*~0-

About five seconds after the lunch bell went off, Goro got a text.

 **Mari:** I s2g this teacher's out to get me.

 **Mari:** BTW, this a little late, but did you hear that Kamoshita and Takamaki came to school together yesterday?

 **Goro:** I heard a few people mention it.

 **Mari:** He prolly just picked her up somewhere along the way, but that's not what most people are thinking…

 **Mari:** It makes me sick.

 **Goro:** I have to commend her for holding out so long, but I'm worried about the effect it's having on Kamoshida.

 **Mari:** Yeah, nobody wants to see him snap.

 **Goro:** Or have a psychotic breakdown during school.

 **Mari:** Please, no. That would be a horror worse than anything I've experienced so far.

 **Goro:** I can think of worse.

 **Mari:** I don't wanna know.

"Who are you texting?"

Goro looked up to see Makoto Niijima, the student council president and his acquaintance, standing next to his desk.

"The rumormonger."

Makoto sat down in the desk in front of Goro's. "I'm still surprised at how well you two get along."

"I'm surprised that she was able to commit to changing herself. Though considering what happened, perhaps it's not too much of stretch."

A pause.

"Um…" Makoto shifted uncomfortably. "If you don't mind me asking… How's your mom?"

Goro looked away. "…Still the same."

"…Oh."

There was another, uncomfortably long pause.

"Um…" Makoto spoke up. "Would you be available after school today to help me organize some things?"

Glad for the change in topic, Goro said, "I have plans for today, but I can do the day after tomorrow, if that would work for you."

Makoto, surprised at his sudden change in mood, said, "Uh… I-I'll have to double-check, but that should work."

Goro gave a nod of acknowledgement and Makoto got up and walked away.

A guy who happened to be sitting nearby whispered, "Sorry to hear about your mom, dude."

Goro didn't even try to hide his downcast expression.

0~*~0

Futaba typed rapidly on her laptop. She didn't know if there were any rules against using personal laptops in the school library, but nobody had bothered her yet, so she assumed that nobody cared enough if there was.

She just hoped nobody was observant enough to realize what exactly she was doing.

 _C'mon… Almost there… Yes!_

After double-checking what she had to, she closed her laptop and sent Goro a text saying she was ready to leave. She then stuffed her laptop into her school bag and speedwalked to the door. Right as she left the library, she got a text back.

 **Goro:** I have to change first.

 **Futaba:** K. I'll wait at the entrance hall.

She knew that he had meant changing his clothes, but she couldn't help but think of what else he could've been changing.

 _If only he could change his secretive ways as easily as he could change clothes…_

Once she got to the entrance hall, she leaned against the corner of the wall, silently hoping nobody would talk to her. Plenty of people gave her passing stares, but nobody approached her.

"Hey."

Futaba nearly jumped as she turned to see none other than Kamoshida next to her, standing slightly too close for comfort.

"I gotta ask," he said as he ran a hand through his hair, "is that hair color natural?"

Futaba couldn't stop herself from trembling as she looked away and said, "I-It's dyed."

"Any particular reason why?"

"I just wanted to."

"…I'm curious about those flowers in your hair."

"It's a hairclip. They're plastic."

"Where'd you get it?"

"Birthday gift."

"From who?"

"Not telling."

Kamoshida didn't respond, and Futaba was too nervous to look at him.

"…All right. Have a good one."

Futaba was surprised by how easily he seemed to drop it, but still didn't look at him. Her curiosity quickly got the better of her, though, and hesitantly turned her head to see that he wasn't there. Indeed, he didn't seem to be in the hallway anymore.

Futaba leaned against the wall, letting out a sigh of relief. Their conversation had been brief, but she still felt like she was about to faint.

About a minute passed before another, much more familiar voice spoke up. "I'm here, Futaba."

Futaba looked up to see Goro standing a few feet away, his eyes dull and listless. She wordlessly grabbed his arm and led him out of the school. She didn't have to ask what was wrong.

(And even just knowing what was wrong made her feel… uncomfortable, for some reason.)

0~*~0

Goro glanced at his clock. 8:02 p.m. He had been sitting at his desk for over an hour and had gotten nothing done. Not his homework, not an infiltration tool, not… whatever else he could've been working on at his desk.

(It had been a long time since anyone had asked him about mom.)

Finally resigning himself to not getting anything done that night, he pushed himself out of his chair and collapsed on his bed. (Well, it was more of a mattress on the floor than a bed, but he didn't mind. He had insisted on it, in fact.)

He looked at the framed pictures on the coffee table that served as a nightstand. One was of his 4-year-old self being held by his mother and the other was of him, Futaba, and Wakaba during their trip to a ski resort.

He sighed.

 _Some son I am._

0~*~0

Futaba scrunched up her face as she stared at her computer.

 _The cameras are good, but they don't have audio… Guess I'll have to go through with the plan anyway._

She picked up her school bag and checked to make sure she had everything she needed.

 _Visual and audio recorders, check. Lockpick from Goro's desk, check. Plan to get out of the volleyball rally, check._

Now she had to make sure Goro didn't catch on to what she was planning on doing. He'd undoubtedly try to stop her, and she couldn't let that happen.

For the sake of Kamoshida's victims and herself, she couldn't fail.

She also hoped it didn't backfire, given that-

 _Nope, nope, nope, not gonna think about it._

 **Originally, Mari's name was going to be something else, but I changed it for reasons I am currently unable to elaborate on. (I also kept typing it as "Mira" at first.) Oh, and just to be clear, the red highlight in her hair is in the same place as Hifumi's hair knot thing.**

 **I was also going to have Goro go by his canon surname Akechi, but a former acquaintance persuaded me to change it.**

 **Don't expect updates to come quickly.**


	3. The Volleyball Rally

"Just look at how banged up the volleyball team is," the dissatisfied first-year said. "What the hell goes on during their practices?"

The bandwagoning first-year gave a noncommittal shrug.

Ren clenched his jaw.

"By the way, have you heard about that orange-haired girl?"

"I think I've seen her a few times in the hallway. What about her?"

"She seems to be really attached to Isshiki-senpai. I've heard they even walk to school together."

"Who?"

The boy looked scandalized. "You don't know who Isshiki-senpai is!?"

"We just started high school. How do _you_ know about him?"

"He's one of if not THE most popular guy at school! Especially with girls! Just the other day I saw him getting swarmed by them!"

"Seriously!?"

"Yeah! I wonder what that orange-haired girl is to him…"

 _If Isshiki-senpai is the guy that walks to school with an orange-haired girl,_ Ren thought, _then he must be Goro-san. Maybe I can ask him about Kamoshida. Although… given my current reputation, he might want nothing to do with me while we're at school…_

Ren sighed.

0~*~0

Goro barely listened as the teacher talked about the volleyball rally. He just wanted to get it over with. It wasn't that he hated volleyball per se - he was actually pretty good at it - he just didn't want to risk aggravating Kamoshida more than necessary. He wasn't sure if was actually going to encounter Kamoshida during the rally, but he was already on thin ice with the man, and now more than ever, he couldn't afford to have his reputation sink like it had at his previous high school. He would probably be able to handle whatever the Shujin students could throw at him, but Futaba…

He quietly sighed.

 _ **You don't HAVE to put up with it, you know…**_

 _I'm not willing to go that far yet._

0~*~0

 _I can't believe that actually worked,_ Futaba thought as she speedwalked through the Practice Building. She had no doubt she looked conspicuous, being in her gym uniform, but it would have to do. She just hoped nobody would try to stop her.

Futaba quickly found the PE faculty office and tried the door. It was, unsurprisingly, locked. Quickly checking to make sure nobody was watching her, she fished the lockpick out of her school bag and started picking the lock. She had read a few books on lockpicking beforehand and even practiced on her bedroom lock, but it still felt like it took an awfully long time before she was able to get the door open. Her nervousness about getting caught probably hadn't helped.

The PE faculty office was thankfully empty, and Futaba set right to work planting the small microphones and cameras she had brought. She had to utilize a folding chair and the tables to reach some of the higher vantage points, but she definitely wasn't going to use one of the swivel chairs. That was just asking for disaster.

After nearly dropping a camera from how much her hands were shaking, she took a deep, steadying breath and thought about happy memories. Things like her most recent birthday, meeting Goro for the first time, and-

The announcement tone rang.

" _Attention, attention. All matches have concluded. Please get ready to go home for today…"_

 _Crap!,_ Futaba thought. _I'm not done!_

She quickly rushed to finish setting up her surveillance system, hoping beyond hope that she wouldn't get caught.

0~*~0

"…Don't be a pain," Mishima whispered angrily. "You don't understand what I'm going through. Shouldn't you of all people know that nothing's going to help…!?"

Ryuji looked away with a pained expression as Mishima ran off, his head down.

"Dammit…" Ryuji muttered.

"What now?" Ren asked.

Ryuji looked up at him. "…I'll try one more time to persuade the other guys. That's… all I can do."

"That's unlikely to work."

Ryuji and Ren turned and were startled by the sight of Goro-san standing a few feet away from them.

"You might have more luck if you had one of the teachers helping you, but they're apathetic or ignorant at best and invested in keeping it secret at worst. I don't know what brought on this sudden burst of motivation to enact justice on Kamoshida, but as it is, you're unlikely to accomplish anything positive by yourselves. Especially given your current reputations."

Ren looked down at the floor while Ryuji snapped, "Why don't _you_ do something about it?"

Goro-san took two steps towards Ryuji. "There's not that much I can do on my own without resorting to… drastic measures," he said in a low voice. "And I'm not yet at the point where I'd be willing to resort to them."

"'Drastic measures…?'" Ryuji repeated.

"Besides, I'm already on thin ice with Kamoshida. I have a lot to lose if I aggravate him too much."

"Like what?" Ryuji challenged.

Almost as if on cue, the orange-haired girl came barreling out from the hallway and attached herself to Goro's arm.

Ryuji took a step back, surprised by the girl's sudden appearance. "What the…?"

Ren saw his chance and asked, "Who is that girl?"

"She's my sister," said Goro. "Thank you for being the first person to ask."

Ryuji kept his surprised expression as Goro and his sister left. "He didn't tell me he had a sister…"

"Who was that guy?" Ren asked.

"That was Goro Isshiki," Ryuji answered. "He's pretty much the most popular guy at school, at least with the girls."

"Why's he so popular?"

Ryuji shook his head. "Prolly 'cause of his grades and charisma."

"Do you not like him?"

"It's not that. He's… not a bad guy, but I think his popularity's gone to his head a little."

"…What do you plan on doing now?"

"I'm still gonna try to talk to those guys again. I'll let you know how it goes."

"All right. See you tomorrow."

0~*~0

"You know," Futaba said as they walked to the station, "Sakamoto doesn't seem like a delinquent."

"He's not," Goro said. "He was just unlucky."

"…Was he the track runner?"

"Yeah."

Goro felt Futaba's grip on his arm tighten.

 _Sakamoto…_

-Late April, 2015-

"Hey Isshiki-senpai, wait up!"

Goro stopped and turned around, only mildly surprised to see Sakamoto running towards him. He really wasn't in the mood to deal with people right now, but he supposed he owed it to Sakamoto to at least hear him out.

"Do you need something, Sakamoto?"

"I heard about what happened to your mom."

Goro groaned. "Does _everyone_ at school know about that now?"

"Is it really that bad that everyone knows about it?"

 _Yes, because of Kamoshida._ "…I will admit, it has made people give me some much-needed space… but if it had been up to me, nobody would've found out in the first place."

"Why wouldn't you want anyone to know?"

"…I'm a very private person."

"…A-Anyway, that's not what I wanted to say!"

"Then what is it?"

"Uh… Wanna go grab a beef bowl sometime, man?"

It took Goro a few moments to realize the offer for what it was; an offer to talk about his feelings at a time of his choosing, at a place other students would be unlikely to overhear them. Granted, Sakamoto probably hadn't put as much thought into it as Goro was doing now, but still…

Goro said, "I'll think about it."

Three days later, he accepted Sakamoto's offer.

While they were waiting for their beef bowls, Sakamoto said, "So, uh… What do you feel like talking about?"

Goro stared at the counter. "I don't want to talk about the event itself."

"Okay." A pause. "Uh… What was she like?"

"She was… blunt and somewhat unusual, but I never saw that as a bad thing. She… meant a lot to me."

"Yeah…" Sakamoto said sympathetically. "If something like that happened to my mom, I'd… Well, I'd be pretty screwed for one thing, but emotionally, it'd be… pretty hard…"

A moment of silence passed between them.

"So," Sakamoto said, "who're you stayin' with now?"

"…My… d-dad." _I suppose Sakura-san basically IS my dad now… Though… it feels incredibly weird to think of him as such…_

"What's he like?"

The slight apprehensiveness in Sakamoto's voice finally made Goro look at him. There was a definite look of concern in Sakamoto's expression, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to know why.

Goro looked back at the counter. "He…" _is a coward, is running from what happened to mom, is someone I don't know how to deal with_ "…smokes, but that's my biggest complaint against him."

"Hmm." Sakamoto sounded unconvinced, though of what, Goro wasn't sure.

Their beef bowls finally arrived and Sakamoto immediately started digging into his. Goro did too, though at a much slower pace.

He… wasn't sure how to describe how he felt. Sakamoto's willingness to reach out to him was something he appreciated in a sense, but he absolutely wasn't comfortable divulging everything he probably needed to to Sakamoto. He seemed more like the type to avoid or ignore him instead of spreading rumors or bullying him, but Goro could never be too sure. The last thing he needed was a repeat of what had happened at his previous high school.

"So where are you stayin'?"

"…I'd rather people not know where I live."

"Why not?"

"Because…" It was a good question, one Goro didn't feel right about answering with a lie. "Because right now I… I really need somewhere where I can be… safe, for lack of a better term."

Sakamoto looked at him with a confused expression. Goro probably should've elaborated, but he was already uncomfortable with the level of emotional honesty he was showing to a stranger.

"It's difficult to explain. By the way, I apologize for snapping at you a while back."

"It's fine. It makes total sense that you'd still be upset from what happened to your mom."

"Still, it was… uncalled for of me to do that."

"It's fine, man. I forgive you."

Sakamoto's smile was likely meant to be disarming, but it seemed to be having the opposite effect on Goro.

Seeing his chance to end the conversation, Goro said, "Well, since we both seem to be done with our food, I think we should pay up and return home."

"Huh?" Sakamoto looked at their bowls, as though he hadn't noticed. "Oh… Uh, I guess so…" He suddenly pulled out his phone. "Tell me your number. Chat ID too."

"I'd rather not."

"Well, at least let me give you my number!"

Goro reluctantly acquiesced to Sakamoto's request and allowed the other boy to put his phone number in Goro's contacts. Thankfully, he didn't ask anything about Goro's other contacts.

They split off at the train station, Sakamoto jogging off with a, "See you at school, dude!"

Goro watched him leave. He had no intention of texting him.

(It had been sheer coincidence that Goro and Koizumi witnessed Kamoshida break Ryuji's leg. They were too far away to stop him; even if they had run, they wouldn't have gotten there in time. It had seemed like an unfortunate inevitability, but Goro felt pangs of guilt all the same.

The two of them had tried to speak up in Sakamoto's defense, but the word of just two students, even if one was an honor student, wasn't enough to make a difference to the teachers and most of the students. The track team was shut down and Sakamoto essentially became a social pariah. After that was when Koizumi joined the newspaper club and adopted a "kindness as an expression of anger" philosophy.

 _ **You could have prevented Sakamoto's injury.**_

 _I promised mom I wouldn't kill anyone._

 _ **Is keeping a promise you made to a now brain-dead woman worth the suffering Kamoshida will inflict if you do nothing?**_

Goro didn't have a response. But it did motivate him to send a text to Sakamoto saying, "I'm sorry for not stopping Kamoshida."

He never got a reply.)

-0~*~0-

Goro felt tugging on his arm and looked up to see that he and Futaba were standing in front of Sojiro's house.

Futaba said, "You had that look in your eyes."

"Just… thinking about a conversation I once had with Sakamoto."

Futaba looked at him for a moment before letting go of him and heading inside the house.

Goro was tired enough to feel tempted to follow her, but it would probably be better if he helped Sojiro at Leblanc. It was only fair for him to do so, considering that he was responsible for Leblanc's high number of customers.

Of course, before he could do that, he would have to change into his casual clothes, which meant going into the house anyway.

After changing into new clothes and heading into Leblanc, the look of hopeful relief on Sojiro's face when the man saw Goro enter told him all he needed to know.

The sun had set by the time the last of the not-so-casual customers had left. Sojiro was about to say something to him when the front door opened. Goro didn't miss the relief on Sojiro's face when he realized it was only Amamiya.

"Oh, you're back."

Amamiya, no doubt hearing the relief in Sojiro's voice, raised an eyebrow and looked at Goro.

"Busy day," Goro said, hoping that would suffice.

It did, as Amamiya nodded and headed towards the attic. He stopped in front of Goro, looking like he wanted to say something, but apparently changed his mind as he continued on after a few moments.

Sojiro took off his glasses and wiped his forehead. "If it's this busy now, I'm afraid of what Golden Week'll be like."

0~*~0

"Look what I found!"

Goro and Futaba jolted at the unexpectedness of the voice and turned to Koizumi standing next to them holding out, of all things, a displeased-looking mostly-black cat.

"…Where did you find that?" Goro asked, sounding more exasperated than he perhaps intended to.

"It was wandering around."

Goro glanced around the courtyard. Nobody seemed to be looking at them. "And you decided to pick it up and bring it to me?"

"Do you not want me to show you interesting stuff I've found?"

"It's the picking it up part I have an issue with."

Futaba got off the bench and approached Koizumi, her gaze switching between the older girl and the cat.

"You wanna hold him?" Koizumi asked.

Futaba didn't answer, and Goro quickly noticed what she had likely noticed.

"Koizumi-san, could you put that cat closer to your head?"

Koizumi moved the cat so that its head was next to hers. "Something wrong?"

"…Your eyes and the cat's eyes seem to be the exact same shade of blue."

Futaba nodded.

Koizumi and the cat simultaneously turned to look at each other then back at Goro. "You think so?"

"Yes. It's… actually somewhat unnerving."

The cat squirmed in Koizumi's grip.

"Koizumi-san, I think you should put the cat back down."

"Okay…" Koizumi grumbled as she carefully put the cat back on the ground.

It promptly zoomed off elsewhere and Koizumi walked off, muttering to herself.

Futaba sat back down on the bench. "Was that the rumormonger girl?"

"Yes."

"…I don't know what to think of her."

"I've known her for over a year and _I_ don't know what to think of her." Goro checked the time on his phone. "Let's head back. Lunch is almost over."

0~*~0

"I really appreciate you helping me with this," Makoto said.

"It's no problem at all," Goro assured her.

If anyone asked, Goro wouldn't have been able to say when exactly he and Makoto became acquaintances; it seemed to be something that just happened. Not that he minded. He had yet to really gain something from being acquainted with Makoto, but he had yet to be seriously inconvenienced by it.

After going through the papers for a few minutes, Makoto spoke up. "Um…"

Goro looked up at her. "Yes?"

"I've been hearing people talk about you having a sister?"

"Yes. My younger sister enrolled at Shujin this year."

"You never mentioned her…"

"I never mentioned her to anyone at school. I wasn't expecting her to come here."

"Oh. Where were you expecting her to go?"

"Nowhere in particular, just not here."

Makoto opened her mouth, as if to ask why, but hesitated.

Goro, seeing his chance, said, "On a side note, I'm fairly surprised at how long it took for people to figure it out. I would've expected people to figure it out when they realized we had the same surname. Nobody even asked until yesterday."

"I-Is that so…?"

"And it was the transfer student, of all people."

"O-Oh, really?"

"Yes. Though I can't help but wonder why nobody else thought to ask."

Makoto stayed silent.

Goro noticed her expression, but decided not to comment on it.

They did the rest of the work in silence, and Goro walked away from the student council room feeling like he had done something wrong.

0~*~0

Futaba stared at the video playing on her computer screen.

 _Audio and video signals are clear… Automatic recording is set up… Phone is hacked… Now I just have to wait for him to do something incriminating._

She stretched her arms above her head and leaned back in her chair.

 _I'll show you, Goro. I'm- We're not helpless in the face of injustice._

Futaba pulled up another program on her computer.

 _Let's see how Amamiya's doing…_

An unfamiliar girl's voice came through the speakers. _"She's all I have left at that sorry excuse of a school!"_

"Oh…?"


	4. Falling Down

**Due to…certain events…I decided to delay posting this chapter after I finished it.**

 **This chapter covers the events of April 15.**

 **I don't have to remind you what happens on April 15, do I?**

Futaba clung tighter than usual to Goro's arm as they walked to school.

"Is something wrong?" Goro asked.

"I have a bad feeling about today," Futaba said.

"Any particular reason why?"

"Not really, just… a feeling I have."

Goro quickly consulted his Personas, but none of them had anything to say.

For now, he would have to hope Futaba was just worrying too much.

0~*~0

In the middle of the teacher's lecture, someone burst into the room saying, "Someone's about to jump off the roof!"

(In hindsight, Goro thought, he should've known better than to be optimistic.)

Goro ran out of the classroom and up to one of the windows, straining to see the person standing on the edge of the roof.

Goro felt someone press against him to look out the window.

"Is… Is that… Suzui…?" Koizumi said, her voice strained.

It took him about a second to realize that was indeed Shiho Suzui standing on the roof.

It was a few seconds after that that Suzui fell forward.

Screams rang out, and Goro felt his heart drop along with her. He was fortunate, in a way, to have been unable to see her hit the ground.

"Oh… Oh no…" Koizumi whimpered before running off towards the courtyard.

 _Considering everything I know,_ Goro thought, _I can think of only one thing that would cause Suzui-san to do such a thing…_

His entire body jolted as he came to another realization. The whole school had likely seen Suzui jump. Which meant…

" _FUTABA!_ "

0~*~0

Futaba felt numb.

She felt numb when she saw someone standing on the edge of the roof.

She felt numb as she watched them fall.

She felt numb as she ran downstairs and out to the courtyard.

She felt numb as some blonde girl told the paramedics she'd go with the injured girl.

She felt numb as she watched the ambulance drive away.

Muffled, unintelligible voices surrounded her. She was vaguely aware of two people near her running off, but she didn't know or care who they were.

"Teachers, return to your classrooms for the time being! Please do not let any students go home yet!"

"HOW CAN YOU EXPECT US TO JUST GO BACK TO CLASS AFTER _THAT_!?" a girl yelled.

Abject horror began to creep into Futaba's mind and she slowly backed away before breaking into a run, nearly knocking over a few people in the process.

0~*~0

Ultimately, Goro wasn't able to find Futaba before he was forced back to his classroom. Fortunately, the teacher knew better than to even try to hold class, so the students were allowed to do whatever they wanted, as long as they didn't leave the classroom.

Goro sent a few texts to Futaba, but there was no response. So he decided to text Sojiro.

 **Goro:** A girl jumped off the roof at school.

It was a few minutes before there was a reply.

 **Boss:** What!?

 **Goro:** She survived the initial impact, though I don't know if she'll pull through or not.

 **Boss:** Oh God…

 **Boss:** How's Futaba?

 **Goro:** I don't know. I wasn't able to find her afterwards. I'll look for her later, if we're allowed out of the classroom.

"Who're you texting?"

Goro reflexively pulled his phone to his chest and stared up at the boy that had spoken to him.

"My boss at one of my part-time jobs," Goro said. "I wanted to let him know I wouldn't be coming in today."

The boy seemed to accept the lie, as he soon turned his attention to someone else. Everyone in the class was on edge, buzzing with an uneasy energy. Goro himself felt much the same way, though he wasn't sure if he would've felt so strongly about it had he not had Futaba to worry about.

Eventually, when lunchtime came around and the students were finally allowed to leave the classroom, Goro bolted up to the third floor and to Futaba's classroom.

He stopped a boy that was leaving the room. "Where's Futaba?"

The boy looked mildly scared and confused. "Who?"

"The orange-haired girl!" Goro said louder than he had intended to.

"Oh, uh… She didn't come back to class after…"

Goro took off before the boy could say anything else.

 _Futaba was either found by a teacher and taken somewhere other than her classroom or she successfully managed to hide somewhere. If it's the latter, she's likely somewhere where there aren't many people…_

Goro decided to check the courtyard.

He found Futaba hiding under a bench next to the vending machines, trembling.

"Futaba," he said as he got on his knees.

Futaba turned her head and scrambled out of her hiding place, throwing her arms around him with a strangled sob.

Goro carefully took off her glasses and returned the embrace. "I'm so sorry, Futaba. I… didn't know this would happen."

Futaba whimpered, pressing her face into his chest and tightening her grip on his blazer.

They stayed there for several minutes, simply holding each other as Futaba's breathing gradually evened out.

"I wanna stay home tomorrow," Futaba said.

"Of course," Goro said, "and since tomorrow's a Saturday, you'll get to have two days off."

They were silent for a few more moments.

"Think you can go back to class for today?"

Futaba shook her head.

"Okay. I'll take you to the nurse's office."

"…I wanna go home."

"I'm not sure if they'll let you go home right now, but I'll make sure you don't go home alone."

"…Okay."

Goro softly sighed and ran his hand through Futaba's hair. They'd deal with this, just like they dealt with everything else. They'd get through this. They'd get through this…

Neither of them were aware of the PE teacher watching them from elsewhere.

0~*~0

 **Goro:** I found Futaba and brought her to the nurse's office. She wants to go home early.

 **Boss:** Let me take care of it.

Goro blinked.

 **Goro:** Okay. Just don't say anything that'll get me sent home early too.

Goro glanced over at Futaba, who was curled up on one of the beds in the back of the nurse's office. He was loath to leave her like this, but lunchtime was almost over and he didn't know if his teacher would be understanding of the reason for his absence.

"I have to go back to class now, Futaba, but Sakura-san said he'd try to come and get you."

Futaba didn't move. "Okay."

"If he's not able to get you, I'll come back for you after school."

"…Okay."

With that, Goro took his leave and returned to his classroom, sitting in his chair just in time for the bell to ring.

A while later, he got a text.

 **Futaba:** Sojiro's taking me home now.

 **Futaba:** See you tonight.

0~*~0

As soon as the last bell rang, Goro bolted out of his seat and out of the classroom… only to quickly encounter Koizumi, who was slouched over with a lifeless, unfocused look in her eyes.

"Koizumi-san…?"

She slowly lifted her head to look at him. "I… heard that the transfer student, Sakamoto-kun, and Mishima-kun were getting expelled… So I asked Mishima what had happened… After Suzui-san… he told them that Kamoshida had called Suzui-san into his office yesterday… So they confronted him… and he decided to expel them…" She buried her face in her hands. "Suzui-san… Oh, poor Suzui-san…"

Goro felt a surge of bitterness, but was unsurprised. Those boys didn't deserve to get expelled, but it was going to happen anyway, all because of the whims of a corrupt adult.

And then his traitorous mind envisioned Futaba in Suzui's place, and he felt bile rise in his throat.

Something clawed in the back of his mind, burning and eager.

… _It HAS been a while since I've been to the Metaverse…_

0~*~0

Goro strode out of the school… and quickly noticed Sakamoto and Amamiya standing in the alleyway he often used as an entry point, along with Takamaki, who was watching them from around the corner.

He could hear them talking, but he wasn't nearly close enough to be able to make out any of it. He casually leaned against the school gate and took out his phone, pretending to be occupied with it. Now that he was actually observing them, he could make out what seemed to be a cat near the boys, along with snippets of an unfamiliar voice. Amamiya then took out his phone.

 _Could it be that they…?_

His suspicions were confirmed when they, along with Takamaki, vanished into thin air.

… _Well shit._

Goro opened the Meta-Nav app and held his finger over it. If nobody showed up in five minutes, he'd go in after them.

Takamaki reappeared in the alleyway within three minutes, looking around with a dazed expression. She crossed her arms and apparently started grumbling about something. Then she hesitantly took out her phone, fiddled with it for a while, and disappeared.

Goro bit down on his lip. Technically, someone _had_ appeared within five minutes, but they had gone back in, and it did nothing to alleviate his uneasiness. So he walked over to the alleyway and let the Meta-Nav warp him into Kamoshida's Castle…

…Just in time to see Takamaki get captured by the Shadow guards.

She struggled as they dragged her into the castle. They had almost certainly mistaken her for Kamoshida's Cognitive version of her and were taking her to him. And if that was the case…

Once the guards were gone, Goro snuck out of the alleyway, into the courtyard, and towards the window he used as an entry point. Hoisting himself up onto it, he quickly noticed that the grate covering it from the inside was gone. Crawling through, Goro discovered the grate on the floor, the damage beneath it indicating it had fallen.

Goro groaned and rolled his eyes. It had almost certainly been the work of Amamiya and Sakamoto. While he didn't know the circumstances behind it, couldn't they have been at least a _little_ more careful?

It would be nearly impossible to put the grate back up, but as long as the guards stayed as unobservant as they usually were, it was unlikely to be a problem.

He knew where the guards would likely be taking Takamaki, and peeked his head through the doorway. Best case scenario, he or Amamiya and Sakamoto would find her before she came to any harm. Worst case scenario… Well… Hopefully they'd all be able to get out of the Palace before it collapsed.

"Intruder!"

Goro whipped around to see a golden Guard Captain standing in the doorway leading to the entrance hall, staring right at him.

 _You've gotta be kidding me!_

The Shadow then melted and took on the form of an Archangel. Goro took out his laser sword and extended the blade. A hallway wasn't exactly an ideal location for a battle, even a brief one, but it would have to do.

 _Is using a spell on this worth the SP or should I just hack it to pieces? Magic would probably be faster…_

Goro's mask vanished as a black-and-white striped figure perched on top of a red sword appeared behind him. He could almost swear he saw the Archangel flinch at the sight.

"EIGAON!"

The figure lazily flicked a finger towards the Shadow, and the Archangel let out an almost comical scream as it disintegrated in a black blast.

Goro then turned and ran, not even bothering to pick up what the Archangel had left behind.

 _ **Not worth my time,**_ Loki complained.

Goro didn't bother replying; he was on a time limit. He went through a few doors (including one that wasn't usually open) and quickly arrived at his destination. The bars normally preventing entry were raised, and one of the suits of armor had been knocked over. Goro dashed over to the doors and carefully pried one open…

…Just in time to witness Takamaki slay her Cognitive counterpart.

Takamaki, now wearing a red… catsuit…, turned to look at Shadow Kamoshida. "You know what? I'm not some cheap girl you can toy with… you scumbag."

" **Bitch…!"**

Goro finally noticed a woman in the back of the room he could only assume was Takamaki's Persona.

 _That's… Uh…_

Takamaki dropped the sword she was holding as she said, "You stole everything from Shiho… You destroyed her… Now it's your turn!" She was quickly joined by two people Goro recognized as Sakamoto and Amamiya and a cartoonish cat thing. "I will rob you of everything…!"

"How dare you! Enough of your insolence!" A Guard Captain and two soldiers transformed into a giant purple demon sitting on a toilet. (Not the weirdest thing Goro had seen, but it was up there.)

"No, I've had enough of you." Takamaki clenched her fists. "No one's gonna stop me now! Let's go, Carmen!"

 _Carmen… I feel like I've heard that name before…_

Goro settled in by the door as the battle began, making sure nobody inside would notice him. He considered helping from the sidelines, but it quickly seemed to be unnecessary. Takamaki was clumsy with her whip and had terrible posture, seeming as though she had never fought before. Sakamoto fought exactly as Goro would've expected him to, preferring brute strength over any kind of finesse, seeming to be having the time of his life all the while. The cat thing was considerably more mobile than Goro would've expected, hopping around and making seemingly impossible flips. Amamiya's movements were fluid and graceful yet powerful, his coattails accentuating his movements. It was almost hypnotic.

After a while, he realized that, surprisingly, Shadow Kamoshida had yet to try fleeing the room, apparently confident that the Guard Captain would win… though his expression became increasingly nervous as the battle went on.

The battle was over soon enough, and Shadow Kamoshida ran, cursing under his breath as Takamaki fell to her knees.

Goro quickly flattened himself against the wall next to the door, watching the unsightly Shadow Self run past. He heard talking from within the room, mostly from Takamaki, and decided to leave as well. The panicked king hadn't noticed him, but he wasn't going to take his chances with those four.

Normally he would teleport straight to the entrance, but he was close enough that he just ran back, picking up what that Archangel from earlier had left behind along the way (Medjed would've complained if he hadn't).

Feeling fairly confident that the group wouldn't keep going through the Palace, Goro decided to leave for the day, hearing voices on the wind as he phased back into reality.

He didn't know what to make of the group just yet, but he was fairly certain that none of them were the person he had seen a year ago.

0~*~0

That evening, Sojiro came back home with an exasperated look on his face.

"Did something happen?" Goro asked.

"The kid brought a cat with him."

Goro blinked. "…A cat?" _Could that cat be the thing I saw with them in Kamoshida's Palace?_

"Yeah. Said its name was Morgana, I think. You'll probably get to see it pretty soon."

"You let him keep it?"

"Well… yeah… B-But I'm not helping him take care of it. It's all on him."

Goro barely restrained his snicker. "If you say so."

Sojiro sighed. "Where's Futaba?"

"In her room."

0~*~0

Futaba stared in disgust at the video playing on her computer.

After school on the 14th, Kamoshida had, for whatever reason, phoned a student while in the PE faculty office. She didn't have a recording of his phone conversation, but what he was saying on the footage was more than enough. The person on the other end had apparently refused his advances, given that he suddenly became angry and started threatening their friend's place on the volleyball team. Then he hung up and stormed out of the room, and Futaba paused the recording and saved the phone conversation as a separate video.

Futaba sighed and resumed watching. Eventually, Kamoshida came back looking much calmer, sitting down on his chair and looking like he was waiting for someone. After a few more minutes, the door to the office opened.

" _Please excuse me…"_

A girl with her black hair in a ponytail walked into frame.

Kamoshida said, _"Sorry for suddenly calling you here like that."_

" _What… did you need me for?"_

" _Suzui, from what I've seen, it seems that your performance has been dropping quite a bit lately."_

"… _Yes."_

" _If this goes on, I might have to rethink making you a starter at the next meet."_

The girl jolted. _"Y-You can't!"_

" _Don't panic. Whether I actually make you a starter or not still depends on you."_ Kamoshida gave a disturbing smile. _"As long as you can keep quiet until I'm finished."_

" _M-Mr. Kamoshida!? What are you…!?"_

Kamoshida began to stand and Futaba paused the recording, turning away and burying her face in her hands.

 _Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god… I don't wanna see this I don't wanna see this I do NOT want to see this…_

"Futaba," said Goro's voice on the other side of the door, "dinner's ready."

Futaba uncurled herself. "O-Oh, uh… C-Could you, uh…"

"I have it with me."

Futaba turned off her computer monitor and opened the door to see Goro standing there holding a glass of water and a soup bowl with a spoon in it. Futaba silently took them and closed the door with her foot.

Goro had the unusual tendency to, on stressful days, make bizarre concoctions that almost always turned out well. Futaba all but inhaled the soup-like mixture (though she had to stop to chew the meaty bits) and glanced back at her monitor.

 _I really don't wanna see what he did to that girl… Even if I had a normal memory, I'd remember that forever… I could start at a later point and work backwards… 6:00 p.m. sounds like a good starting point._

Futaba sat back in her chair, turning her monitor back on. _It's gonna be a long night…_

It was perhaps fortunate that she hadn't planned on sleeping that night anyway.

 **BTW, I got that dialogue between Kamoshida and Shiho from a translation of the manga. (It was convenient, okay?)**

… **There was something else I wanted to say, but I forgot what.**


	5. Preparations

**These games and their unrealistic timescales...**

Out of all the things Ren would've expected to happen on Saturday morning, getting pulled aside by the girl he had seen in Leblanc on his first day in Tokyo when he got to the Aoyama-Itchome station was not among them.

She pulled him off to somewhere where they were unlikely to be seen by the other commuting students.

"You're… Amami-kun, right?"

"Amamiya."

"Um… Mishima-kun… told me what happened…" She held out a slip of paper with what looked like a phone number on it. "If there's anything I can do for you, please let me know."

Ren hesitantly took the slip and the girl ran off. Ren stared after her in confusion.

 _She gave me her phone number and not her name… Just who is that girl?_

Ren shrugged and continued on to school.

 _Maybe she'll end up being one of my "Confidants."_

0~*~0

Shortly after the beginning of lunch, Ren decided to go ahead and text the mystery girl.

 **Ren:** Hello.

 **?:** Who is this?

 **Ren:** It's me, the transfer student.

 **?:** Oh thank the gods!

 **?:** I was afraid I had given you the wrong phone number!

 **Ren:** Huh?

 **?:** Nevermind!

 **?:** Anyway, was there something you wanted to talk about?

 **Ren:** I just wanted to go ahead and text you. And ask for your name.

 **?:** Whoops!

 **?:** I'm Mari Koizumi, amateur journalist.

"Who're you texting?" Ann whispered, turning around in her seat.

"Mari Koizumi," Ren whispered back.

"Oh, her?"

"Do you know her?"

"I've hung out with her a couple times. She's pretty weird, but she's really nice."

"Weird how?"

"It's… a little hard to describe… It's like… willful social obliviousness but not really?"

Ren blinked.

"Spend enough time around her and you'll see."

"...All right." Ren looked back down at his phone.

 **Ren:** Amateur journalist?

 **Mari:** I find news-worthy stuff and post it on my blog!

He then received a link and tapping it led to a blog that had posts with all manner of titles.

"Best places for students to study outside of school"

"Best food places in Tokyo"

"Why the terms 'psychotic breakdown' and 'mental shutdown' aren't accurate"

"Why the 'societal harmony at all costs' mindset is so harmful-and what you can do about it"

"Top five theories behind the cause of psychotic breakdowns"

"Psychotic breakdowns and mental shutdowns-what they are and what you should do if you or someone you know has one"

"Why just 'being informed' isn't enough"

 **Ren:** That's quite the blog you have there…

 **Mari:** I prefer to cover a variety of topics than to stick with just one category.

 **Mari:** Variety is the spice of life, after all.

 **Mari:** And sticking to one topic felt too confining.

 **Ren:** Well, you'd know more about that than I would.

0~*~0

Futaba texted him while he was on the train home.

 **Futaba:** You're going to Takemi's today, right?

 **Goro:** Yes. She said she had something different for me to try.

 **Futaba:** Hopefully they work this time.

Upon arriving at Yongen-Jaya, Goro headed for Takemi's clinic and opened the door to see Amamiya standing there.

The two of them stared at each other, and Goro could almost _feel_ Takemi's gaze flicking between them.

Deciding to break the awkwardness, Goro sat down in one of the seats and quickly said, "I'll… wait out here."

The silence stretched on for a few seconds too long.

"Well, as I was saying," Takemi said, "please head to the exam room."

As soon as they were gone, Goro let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. He definitely hadn't been expecting to see Amamiya at Takemi's, and given that Amamiya was due to be expelled in less than a month, it seemed pointless.

Then again, he hadn't expected to see him in the Metaverse either. Which made him wonder: what did Amamiya and the others expect to accomplish in the Metaverse? As far as he knew, the only things they'd be able to do from there that would directly affect Kamoshida would be to give him a psychotic breakdown (an ability he wasn't sure they had) or a mental shutdown, and he didn't feel like any of them were the type that would risk collateral damage or be willing to kill someone.

Then again, given what had happened the previous day, perhaps he shouldn't be so sure of that last one.

(Wakaba was sure there was a way to steal someone's distorted desires, but they hadn't been able to figure it out before she...)

He idly scrolled through stuff on his phone before just staring at the wall.

Eventually, a somewhat familiar man (his name was Oyamada, if Goro recalled correctly) came in through the front door, eyeing Goro as he entered. Before either of them could say anything, Amamiya came out of the exam room and stepped aside to let Oyamada pass. He then began talking with Takemi, and Goro couldn't fault Amamiya for being too curious not to stop and listen in on them.

"Rumor has it, it's a drug so potent it can give a person unlimited power."

…That got Goro's attention.

"Really? That's news to me."

"Developing experimental drugs, medicine, and herbal remedies violates all health regulations. Are you attempting to create a super-stimulant? A drug like that will only become a social issue."

 _A super-stimulant?_

"You're really persistent, you know that? I'm just a quack…"

"The police may not be taking action, but I imagine the media will soon pick up on it. You intend to ruin my reputation again, huh? You're a disgrace to the medical community."

"…Tsk!"

"What's with the look? That was your mistake, was it not?"

Goro couldn't help but sigh.

"I won't be held responsible for your criminal actions. Dispose of that 'medicine' immediately and resign. The name 'Tae Takemi' will never—Hey, is somebody there!?"

Amamiya startled and quickly left. Goro stayed where he was.

"I have a patient waiting for me in the lobby," Takemi said. "He's probably wondering why you cut in line."

The conversation continued for a bit longer, albeit too quietly for Goro to make out what was being said. Eventually, Oyamada came back, staring at Goro.

"Don't you know what this woman has done?"

"I heard about what happened," Goro said. "I also know that it wasn't _her_ fault."

Oyamada tensed up and quickly left. Goro turned back to see Takemi staring at him from the exam room doorway.

Goro knew what she was thinking, but still said, "Don't worry. I won't try to ask you for that stimulant, if it exists. The last thing I want to make you think is that I'm trying to avoid sleep altogether."

Takemi smirked. "While I'm glad to hear that, that wasn't what I was wondering."

"Let's just say… I have access to quite the information network."

 _As much as the Metaverse can serve as one._

0~*~0

"Contact me if the medication has any unexpected side effects. If nothing changes after a month, we'll have to try something else."

Goro stuffed the paper bag into his school bag and zipped it up. "Got it. Anything else?"

"I take you're still not able to see a therapist?"

"Correct, for the same reasons as before. And no, I'm still not going to tell you what about my past would make people prejudiced against me."

"…All right. Take care."

As he left, Goro looked back at the texts Futaba had sent him.

Technically speaking, the first meds Takemi had him try worked in that he didn't have any nightmares while taking them, but the side effect of emotional numbness they caused wasn't something he wanted to deal with. They also made Metaverse traversal significantly more dangerous than it needed to be; as he had suspected, Loki's power was, to some extent, proportional to the intensity of his anger and hatred, and he decided to stop taking the meds after one too many close calls caused by him overestimating how much damage Loki's attacks would do.

Still, Goro knew that medication wouldn't be an effective long-term solution, but at the moment, it was all he could really afford to do, both money and time wise. Only later, he told himself, when everything was over, when he didn't have to fear for Futaba's life anymore, when he was free to focus on his future, would he focus on starting to mend the scars his life had left him with.

0~*~0

That evening, Goro looked across the table at Futaba, who was wearing a too-big white t-shirt he didn't know they owned and a giddy but tired smile.

"How are you feeling?" Goro asked.

"I didn't even try to sleep last night," Futaba said. "Caught up to me earlier."

"Were you working on something?"

"Yup. But I finished what I wanted to today." She gave a double thumbs-up. "So that's good!"

"If you say so."

Goro got up to put away his dirty dishes and turned back to see Futaba with her head on the table.

 _Of course._

Goro carefully lifted Futaba out of her chair and carried her to her room. She almost reflexively curled around him as he attempted to set her down on her bed.

"Come on, let go, Futaba," he quietly chided, knowing she couldn't actually hear him.

After a few more minutes of attempting to detangle her from him, he resigned himself to spending the night in Futaba's room. He took off Futaba's glasses and hairclip and put them on the shelves next to Futaba's bed. He lied on his side, Futaba snuggling into his chest. The clothes he was wearing weren't exactly meant for sleeping in, but they would have to do.

It didn't take long for Goro to start dozing off. It felt safe, safer than his own room at times.

He almost never had nightmares when he slept in Futaba's room.

0~*~0

When Goro woke up the next morning, Futaba was still asleep, but she had let go of him, so he was able to get out of her bed and back to his room. As he got changed, he sent a text to Sojiro.

 **Goro:** I'll be helping out at Leblanc today, I just have something I'd like to do first. Shouldn't take long.

Goro finally noticed the time on his phone and frowned. It was significantly later than he normally got up. He would have to get his chore over with quickly.

As he left, he couldn't help but wonder what Amamiya had decided to do on his day off...

0~*~0

Ren followed Ryuji through Central Street, so occupied with thoughts of the speech-giving man that he didn't realize the other boy had stopped until he nearly ran into him. Ren quickly realized why: in the back alley, three boys were standing in front of Goro, who looked like he was ready to bolt.

They realized what was going on when one of the three boys shoved Goro to the ground.

"HEY!" Ryuji ran forward and positioned himself between Goro and the boys, Ren following closely behind. "What the hell are you doing!?"

The boy in the middle, seemingly the leader, crossed his arms and gave an amused huff. "Who are you two?"

The boy on the left adjusted his glasses. "Do you perhaps know the boy currently sitting on the ground?"

The boy on the right looked scared and submissive, and Ren couldn't help but feel that he wasn't there by choice.

"We go to the same school," Ryuji said. "Why'd you shove him?"

The middle boy chuckled. "Do you know about this bastard's past?"

" _Yes._ "

Ryuji said it with such conviction, Ren wondered if Ryuji actually _did_ know.

All three boys' expressions turned to shock.

The middle boy's arms dropped to his sides. "You… You… I… I don't know what to say to that."

The left boy said, "Do you know what exactly we are referring to?"

"Yes," Ryuji again, raising his arms. "Now eff off."

The middle boy stared for a moment before snorting in amusement. "Whatever." He turned around and waved his hand dismissively. "Come on. This ain't worth fighting over."

He then turned and left, the left and right boys following, giving them suspicious and apologetic glances respectively as they did so. Once they were gone, Ren and Ryuji turned back towards Goro, who was staring up at them from the ground, looking stunned.

"You okay, man?" Ryuji asked, holding out a hand for him to grab onto.

Goro didn't seem to notice, continuing to stare up at them without even glancing at Ryuji's hand. After several more seconds, Ren hesitantly said, "Senpai…?"

Goro blinked a few times before quickly standing up on his own. Ryuji's hand dropped to his side.

"Yes?"

"Who were those guys?" Ryuji asked.

"Bullies from my, ah, previous high school."

"Previous high school?" Ren questioned.

"I transferred to Shujin during my first year of high school for… various reasons."

"Ask him what their names are," whispered a voice into Ren's left ear.

"What are those guys' names?" Ren asked.

"I don't know," Goro said, scratching his head. "I don't think I ever knew."

There was silence for several more seconds before Goro took a few steps forward, passing by them. "By the way… thanks. For intervening."

He then walked away quickly, before either of them had a chance to reply.

Once he was gone, Ren said, "What were those boys talking about?"

"No idea," Ryuji shrugged. "But I sure as hell wasn't gonna admit that."

Morgana popped out of Ren's bag. "I'm surprised you did that, Ryuji."

"I don't exactly like the guy," Ryuji said, "but I don't _hate_ him either. Besides, it'd be pretty shitty of me to ignore a guy gettin' bullied in front of where we were headin'." Ryuji motioned to the store behind them. "This is it. Pretty legit, huh? Oh yeah, now that we're here… you know anything about military stuff?"

0~*~0

All Goro had wanted to do was sell some stuff from the Metaverse to Iwai before he helped out at Leblanc.

He certainly wasn't expecting to run into people from his old school as soon as he left Untouchable.

Goro had quickly considered his options. The alley was too cluttered for running around them or down the alley to be viable. Staying where he was and taking whatever they threw at him was… viable, but not the preferred option. If he ran back into Untouchable, Iwai would likely force the boys to go away, but that would risk Iwai finding out about him being an orphaned bastard child. Granted, given what Goro knew about the man, it was unlikely that he would let that affect Goro's continued patronage of his shop, but Goro wanted to keep the number of people who knew about his past as low as he could.

He certainly hadn't expected Amamiya and Sakamoto showing up and getting the boys to leave.

"Who were those guys?" Sakamoto asked.

"Bullies from my, ah, previous high school."

"Previous high school?" Amamiya questioned.

Goro didn't know how much, if anything, Amamiya knew about him being a transfer student, but it wasn't the time or place to explain.

"I transferred to Shujin during my first year of high school for… various reasons."

"Ask him what their names are," whispered a young-sounding voice.

Goro was fairly sure it was coming from the cat attempting to discreetly whisper into Amamiya's ear, but it seemed better not to acknowledge it.

"What are those guys' names?" Amamiya repeated.

"I don't know," Goro said, scratching his head. "I don't think I ever knew."

He really didn't; he would've gladly told them if he did.

Goro started to walk away, but he felt like he should at least acknowledge their help, so he said, "By the way… thanks. For intervening."

Goro then speedwalked away before either of them could respond. Once he was far enough away, his mind went into overdrive. In regards to encountering those three boys, the best-case scenario was that nothing would come of that encounter and he would never see any of them again. The worst-case scenario was that they would find out he was attending Shujin and tell the other students there about his status as an orphaned bastard child, resulting in him and Futaba being subjected to what he had gone through after his previous high school had found out. The most likely scenario… He honestly had no idea what that was.

The trip back to Leblanc seemed to take longer than it normally did.

0~*~0

It was evening by the time Amamiya returned.

The only customer still in Leblanc, the haughty regular, said, "Boss, did you hear? Apparently that subway driver from the accident was acting really odd during his testimony hearing."

"You talking about the psychotic whatever thing people're going on about?" Sojiro said.

"Yeah, I heard it completely alters your personality. The news is saying the driver couldn't even speak when they tried asking him questions."

 _Did they also give that driver a mental shutdown?,_ wondered Goro.

"There's no way a preposterous story like that could be true."

 _If only you knew, Sakura-san…_

"What do you think, young man?"

It took Goro a moment to realize the customer was talking to him. "I don't pay much attention to those stories."

"A young man your age should be more concerned about happenings in the world."

"Please don't drag my employee into this," Sojiro said. "Oh and sorry, but we're closing soon."

"Hmph, how rude. How you get as many customers as you do is beyond me."

"Aggressive marketing," Goro said flatly.

There were a few moments of silence before the customer said, "Hmph. I only say this out of politeness, but… thanks for the coffee."

"Thanks for stopping in," Sojiro said, visibly irritated. "Please come again."

Once the man had left, Sojiro said, "Sheesh, what a pain…" He noticed Amamiya staring at him. "Oh… What do you want? If you're bored, go wash some dishes or something."

"Isn't Goro-san already doing that?" Amamiya pointed out.

Goro chanced a glance back at them. Sojiro glared at Amamiya but didn't say anything.

"How's business?" Amamiya asked.

"It's fine. It's all good as long as the shop doesn't fail. I'm not gonna go wearing a fake smile."

"But what if it does fail?"

It was a good question, one Goro had occasionally thought about himself.

"Who knows? Maybe I'll end up living out on the streets."

 _Quite a blaise answer for someone taking care of two high school students._

"As long as I'm here, the world leaves me be. No annoyances or troublesome people to deal with. It's like my own personal hideaway. I'd be kinda screwed if I lost it, but I guess you would be too. So you better at least try and be useful around here." Sojiro turned to Goro. "I'm heading home. Be sure to lock up after I leave."

"Of course, sir," Goro said.

Once Amamiya had gone upstairs and Sojiro had left, Goro dried off his hands and walked over to the stairs. "Amamiya, come down here. I want to talk to you."

"Hang on a second," Amamiya called down.

Goro took off his apron and sat down in one of the booths. After a minute or so, Amamiya came down the stairs and sat in the seat across from Goro. A very familiar black cat followed him, jumping up onto one of the barstools.

"Ah, that cat," Goro said. At Amamiya's puzzled expression, he continued with, "A girl I know showed me that cat a few days ago. Its name is Morgana, right?"

"Yes."

"I take it the cat is yours?"

"It didn't have a home," Amamiya said.

While that statement was likely true, there was clearly more to it, given what he had seen in the Metaverse.

"What'd you want to talk about?"

Goro looked down at the table. "It feels… ungrateful of me to say this after what you and Sakamoto did for me earlier… but I don't know if I'll get another chance to say this to you, so… in regards to Kamoshida…" Goro paused before standing up and slamming his hands on the table. "What the hell were you thinking!?"

Amamiya jolted back at Goro's outburst.

"What on Earth did you think confronting him would accomplish!? Trying to stand up to corrupt adults by yourself is only going to get you burned! Was being sentenced to probation not enough to make you realize that!?"

Amamiya looked at the table with a pained expression.

Goro sat back down. "I understand wanting to stand up to injustice. I really, truly do. I hate Kamoshida as much as you do, if not more so. But… a normal high school student can't do much without resorting to… illegal tactics. And I have more than myself to look out for."

"...I… wanted to make sure Ryuji didn't…"

"It was probably better for him that you followed him." Goro looked up at Amamiya. "I won't tell Sakura-san. There'd be no point in making your remaining time here worse than it needs to be."

Goro then got up, stopping next to the chair Morgana was sitting and giving in to the temptation to pet it.

The cat stiffened for a moment before melting into Goro's scritching and closing its eyes. "Oh _yeah_ … Yeah, that's the spot…"

That was… very definitely Morgana talking. He didn't think he was supposed to be able to understand it, though, so he tried to ignore it.

Goro hit a spot that made the cat's hind leg reflexively reach up for its ear and try to scratch, so he decided to stop. He glanced back at Amamiya and saw the other boy trying to hide his smile behind his hands. Goro rolled his eyes and left Leblanc.

Morgana stared after him for a few moments before turning back to Ren. "Well, it's a good thing you aren't a normal high school student anymore. Come on, there's still something I wanna show you."

0~*~0

 **Futaba:** That was kinda harsh.

 **Goro:** Some of my own frustration likely bled into my words. Regardless, I wanted to say it while I still had the chance.

 **Goro:** Though I will admit I have a feeling he has some kind of plan.

 **Futaba:** Probably.

 **Futaba:** That cat though...

 **Goro:** I wouldn't advise heading over right now. You'll have plenty of time in the future.

Goro could almost hear Futaba grumbling at her phone.

 **Fun fact: I forgot I wasn't going to have Futaba attend school on the 16** **th** **at first.**

 **I can't help but imagine a scenario in which a New Game+ Ren ends up in this universe and is VERY confused in regards to all the changes. Whether I'll write it... I don't know.**


	6. The Castle

Futaba froze up at the sight of Kamoshida standing in front of the school gate, greeting students as they passed. Goro grimaced.

 _Of course he would do something like this._

Futaba positioned herself so that Goro was between her and Kamoshida as they walked past.

"Good morning Isshiki-san, Isshiki-kun!"

Goro felt Futaba shudder at the sound of his voice. Once they were out of his hearing range, Futaba said, "Ugh. I was hoping I wouldn't have to see him today."

"As was I, but we'll have to put up with it for now. Just let me know if he ever tries to bother you."

"Of course." Futaba then went quiet but continued to cling tightly to his arm.

"Is something wrong?" Goro asked, bending down slightly.

"You said," Futaba whispered, "that Kamoshida knew about mom and… our status, right?"

"Yes, he knows."

Futaba clenched her jaw, nodded, and headed for the third floor.

-2014, prior to Goro's transfer-

"I couldn't help but notice that you two have different last names," Kamoshida said, his hand on his chin.

Wakaba crossed her arms. "For now."

"So you're adopting him?" There was something… dangerous in Kamoshida's eyes.

Wakaba seemed to notice it too, given that she took a step towards him and said, "Let me make this clear. If you harm Goro in any way, I _will_ make you regret it."

Kamoshida looked honestly surprised and even slightly impressed, and said nothing as Goro and Wakaba walked away.

"I'm surprised you did that," Goro said quietly.

"That man sounded disgustingly arrogant," Wakaba said. "And didn't Medjed say he was a Palace ruler?"

"Yes, though we still haven't seen it yet."

"I know." Wakaba stopped in the middle of the hallway. "I hope that sending you here doesn't turn out to be the wrong decision."

"We didn't exactly have much in the way of options."

"...I know."

(After they returned from infiltrating Kamoshida's Palace for the first time, the first thing Wakaba said was, "Well… I know where Futaba _isn't_ going to high school.")

-Mid-April, 2015-

Goro slammed his fist against the wall next to Koizumi. "Why, exactly, did you tell everyone about what happened to my mom?"

"I-It seemed fair to let everyone know why you were acting like that…" Koizumi said fearfully. "B-Besides, I didn't know you _wouldn't_ want me to let people know…"

Goro stared at her for a moment before dragging his hand down his face and sighing. "I suppose you wouldn't…"

There was silence for a few moments before Goro said, "How much have you told people?"

"Well… I haven't told anyone that you were also put in an ambulance or about that girl that said she was your sister…"

"Keep it that way. Don't tell anyone anything more than what you've already said."

"Sure."

(As Goro went to leave school, the last person he wanted to see stood in front of him.

"Hey, Isshiki. I heard about what happened to your mom. I'm so sorry that happened to you."

Goro scrutinized Kamoshida's expression, unsure if the man was being sincere or not. Finding nothing overtly wrong, Goro looked down and muttered, "It was an accident." before walking around Kamoshida.

"You should be more careful," Kamoshida said, "now that your mom's not here to protect you."

And there it was.)

-0~*~0-

 **Futaba:** I'm gonna try to head home on my own today.

 **Goro:** If you want to. Good luck.

Goro pocketed his phone and stared off into the crowd of students leaving the school. Judging by the time stamp on the text, she had likely already left. Goro took the opportunity to think. Amamiya and the others were likely to head into Kamoshida's Palace at some point before their expulsion, but he had no way of knowing when or where they would enter. Spying on or stalking them would be more trouble than it was worth, and while it seemed safe to assume that they would enter the Palace from the same place he normally did, there was always the chance they could try to enter from within the school (granted, doing so carried the risk of showing up in a dangerous location, but it was still an option).

Goro supposed it wasn't exactly healthy to basically stalk them in the Metaverse, but he was damn curious about what they intended to do in there, and he, quite frankly, didn't have much else to do. His investigations were currently at a standstill, and he and Sojiro had a few months' worth of payments saved up. And he was just plain bored of doing the same things over and over. Having anything new to occupy his time was a welcome change.

Goro zoned back in just in time to see Amamiya, Sakamoto, and Takamaki walk past him and into the alleyway. After a few seconds, he discreetly followed after them, arriving just in time to see them vanish into thin air.

 _How convenient._

Goro went farther into the alleyway before taking out his phone and activating the Meta-Nav.

Once he had arrived, he quickly found the group standing in front of the drawbridge. From the snippets of voices he could hear, they were discussing what code name to give Takamaki.

Goro had never used a code name during his Metaverse explorations; he worked alone, so he didn't see any point in doing so. Even when Wakaba was there, he didn't see any point. (Though she had, at one point, mused about the potential effects of using one's real name when exploring a Palace.)

"Maybe… 'Panther'?" Takamaki suggested. "That sounds pretty cool, doesn't it?"

"Huh? Why?" Sakamoto asked.

"'Cause it sounds more… ferocious?"

"She's a cougar…!" the cat thing, likely Morgana, said.

Goro face-palmed. _For the love of… Do you even know what that means?_

They exchanged a few more words before crossing the drawbridge, exchanged a few more words, and headed towards the castle, but Amamiya suddenly stopped and stared at some of the scaffolding near the entrance. He walked forward a few steps and stopped again.

 _What's he doing?_

 _ **I am not sure**_ , Medjed answered, _**but his mind seems to have gone somewhere else. He should soon return, however.**_

Amamiya seemed to come out of it just in time for the rest of the group to get over to him.

"Something wrong?" Morgana asked. "You were just standing around all of a sudden."

"Why're you spacin' out like that?" Sakamoto asked. "...It's kinda hard to tell what you're thinkin' sometimes."

"I was just…" Amamiya said, "...organizing my thoughts."

It sounded more like an excuse, albeit not an entirely untrue one. The rest of the group seemed to accept it, as they resumed talking about exploring the Palace. After a bit more talking, they finally headed for the window into the castle, Goro following after them. It wasn't long before they encountered a Shadow, and Goro took the opportunity to get a better look at their Personas.

Takamaki's was, as before, a woman in a dress named Carmen with two men on a vine leash. Sakamoto's was a skeletal pirate named Captain Kidd riding a ship. Morgana's was a man named Zorro with thin legs, an inflated chest, and a lance. Amamiya's… Goro couldn't get a good look at it from behind, but it had wings, a top hat, and sharp stilettos (Goro couldn't help but wince as they slammed into a Shadow's head).

The next battle revealed something interesting; Amamiya could summon more than one Persona, at least one of which was one of the Shadows in the Palace. If any of the others could, they made no attempts to do so. The group also had guns, likely models from the real world (how Morgana's slingshot was as powerful as the guns was a mystery to Goro).

Goro also learned everyone's code names; Amamiya was Joker, Sakamoto was Skull, Morgana was Mona, and Takamaki was, as he had heard earlier, Panther.

It wasn't long before the group made it to the west wing's safe room and went inside, Goro sneaking up to the door and listening in on them using Medjed.

They briefly explained what safe rooms were to Takamaki before turning back to the original topic.

"Hey, you think the Treasure's far?" Sakamoto asked.

 _Treasure?_

"Didn't we just get in here?" Morgana said. "Based on how the castle looks, we still have a long way to go."

"I still can't believe a phone app took us somewhere like this," Takamaki said.

"Well, not all of us need that app, y'know…" Sakamoto said. "The cat can just come in on his own."

 _It can? In that case… How long has it been roaming the Metaverse? And how come I never saw it before?_

"I am NOT a cat!"

"So wait, what's the deal with those soldier things that are serving Kamoshida?"

The conversation soon turned into Morgana explaining what Shadows were.

 _How does this cat thing know all this? Did it figure it out on its own like mom did? Or is it itself something like a Shadow?_

Goro was fairly sure it wasn't a Shadow: he didn't know much about the workings of Shadows, but the fact that it could exist in the real world seemed proof enough.

 _ **They're leaving.**_

Goro leapt up, perching himself on top of the door as the group left the safe room and headed left. Once they had gone through the door, Goro jumped down and followed after them.

One thing that quickly became clear was that Amamiya was able to determine what breakables contained valuables a little too accurately to be just lucky guesses. His suspicions were apparently confirmed when Amamiya was easily able to open the bars surrounding a map.

 _Does he have the same ability I do?_

One of the many abilities Loki had given him was something it called Third Eye. It had proven to be exceptionally useful over the years. Being able to use it in the real world was an unfair plus.

One thing the group had over Goro was numbers, and the advantages of it proved to be beyond the obvious; after exploiting the weakness of the Shadows, the group would surround them, pointing their guns at them, and either do an "All-Out Attack", as Morgana called it, or demand something from them.

(Goro had done that, back when Wakaba was there. It had been her idea; he had given her weapons to defend herself with in case they got separated and he had just knocked down a group of Pixies. He had gotten a good deal of money and items out of Shadows using that method before he had to go back to exploring on his own.)

In this instance, they were surrounding a solitary Incubus.

Amamiya said, "Lend me your power."

 _Wait, what?_

The Shadow and boy talked for a bit before it said something about remembering what it was and turned into Amamiya's mask, going into his face.

 _...What. Is… Is that how it's done?_

Shadows had begged to Goro before, but he had never considered asking them to become one of his Personas. He didn't know he could have more than one Persona until after he met Wakaba and Futaba. Hell, he didn't even know normal Shadows could become Personas, as obvious as it seemed in hindsight. And, now that he thought about it, he wasn't sure he would've done it even if he _had_ known. His other two Personas were meaningful to him, representations of his bonds with the two people that had changed his life for the better. To put the equivalent of lowly grunts next to them seemed like an insult, both to them and to himself.

"That was cool!" Takamaki said. "Can I do that too?"

"If you mean taking on a Shadow as another Persona," said Morgana, "I'm afraid not. Joker seems to be the only one that can."

"Why?"

"I… don't know. I didn't even know it was possible to have more than one Persona."

 _So that's the unusual trait… Why do I have it too, then?_

They continued onward, eventually coming back to the central hall. Following them over the chandeliers felt nerve-wracking due to the noise the grates made, but they didn't seem to notice him. They briefly stopped at a safe room before continuing on to the East Building.

He found it interesting that the East Building had a… warmer and darker feel to it. The flags were undoubtedly creepy, but otherwise the atmosphere was almost… relaxing.

Though, considering where he was, that was probably something to be concerned about.

He followed the group through a vent a bit closer than he probably should have and watched from it as they fought an Incubus that ended up begging for its life. He, again, was probably a lot closer than he should've been, but there weren't many options.

The group grabbed what was in the treasure chest and left; Goro made to follow them before he had a sudden realization.

 _Wait… If Amamiya also has the Third Eye ability… will he be able to see me following them?_

Goro went after them before they got too far away, but he couldn't help but put a little more distance between them than before.

Then it was up some stairs, into another safe room, and through some narrow hallways, which proved to be a bit of a nuisance when trying to follow someone without being noticed.

 _Wait… Isn't this near the library?_

0~*~0

When Ren opened the door, the very first thing he noticed was the white robot thing next to the globe in the middle of the room. It was completely out of place in the medieval castle, looking more like something from a high-tech lab.

As he approached it, Ryuji said, "What is that?"

Ann said, "It doesn't look like anything we've seen so far."

Ren bent down to get a better look at it. He was at a loss on how to describe its appearance, other than that its shape vaguely resembled a microscope. It seemed to be depowered, but not damaged. Out of curiosity, he poked it.

The robot suddenly sprung upright, shaking and jerking. "Data… collection… in… progress… Data… collection… in… pro… gress…"

The robot slumped over again, lifeless.

The four of them stared at it for a few moments before Ryuji said, "A-Anyway… This looks like a library."

"A library, huh?" Morgana said. "This definitely seems fishy."

"Whaddya mean?"

"Come on, it's a library in a castle. There has to be some kind of secret mechanism in here."

As they talked, Ren walked over to one of the bookshelves.

Morgana followed him and, observing the titles on the books, said, "Hm… The books on this shelf seem familiar."

Ryuji quickly recognized them. "These're the names of the volleyball team members!" Then he noticed something else. "Wait, what the hell!? All of the titles are boys from our school!"

" _Ryuji Sakamoto: The Vulgar Ape._ There's one here for Skull."

Ryuji looked ready to punch something. "That bastard! Who the hell does he think he is!?"

Ren also noticed another book, one titled _Goro Isshiki: The Defiant Bastard._ Unable to contain his curiosity, he took out the book and opened it… to a page of Goro-san making an absurdly creepy smile. He quickly flipped several pages ahead to a picture of Goro-san with his sister.

"See something interesting, Joker?" Morgana asked.

Ren snapped the book shut and put it back on the shelf. "Just curious."

0~*~0

Goro cautiously peeked through the door at the group. It was risky, but Medjed couldn't look through the door and actually going in was out of the question, given the lack of good hiding places.

(He tried to ignore the scanner bot in the middle of the room.)

He couldn't help but cringe as they unlocked the secret room; he knew _exactly_ what would be in there, and it would be doubly painful for them after what had recently happened.

They reacted… more-or-less like how he expected them to. They seemed to get over it fairly quickly and, judging from what Goro could hear, found a medal and another map.

The group continued onward, with Goro having to perch on top of the doorway again as they left the library. They briefly stopped at a safe room in the East Building Annex before continuing on to the chapel.

Goro _hated_ the chapel and what it represented, and the group seemed to echo his sentiments. There were more than a few examples of Palace rulers thinking of themselves as gods or holy in some way, but Kamoshida was particularly irritating; perhaps because Goro himself was exposed to him almost every day.

A Guard Captain then appeared in front of the group, turning into an Archangel. Goro watched from behind the pews, contemplating intervening. He ultimately didn't have to, though there were more than a few moments where he prepared to run towards them.

He almost jumped when several Shadows suddenly appeared after the Archangel was gone. Amamiya's group once again dealt with them, though hiding from them as they ran around was moderately difficult. The fact that pews didn't make for good hiding places didn't help. He almost had to scramble after them to make sure he didn't fall behind once they were finished. Then it was down a hallway, a few more fights, and unlocking a shortcut to the chapel.

Amamiya, surprisingly, decided to head back to the safe room. Judging from the way everybody was holding themselves, though, they all seemed to be fairly tired.

0~*~0

Ren collapsed into a chair almost as soon as he entered the safe room, as did Ann and Ryuji. Morgana hopped onto the table, not looking much better.

"I think…" Ren breathed, sprawled over the chair, "we're done for today. And probably the next few days."

"Agreed…" Ryuji groaned.

Ann, face-down on the table, gave a thumbs-up.

"Okay, let's just… take a few minutes." Ren let his head fall backwards and closed his eyes.

Morgana looked around at the exhausted group. _We made good progress today. I'm honestly impressed we made it this far._

Morgana heard something outside the door but decided to ignore it.

0~*~0

 _How annoying._

Goro picked up the yen the Shadows had left behind. Getting ambushed in front of a safe room had happened before, but it was still somewhat embarrassing. Especially since he didn't even notice the Shadow until it hit him.

 _ **They have left and returned to the entrance.**_

Goro jolted at Medjed's voice and shoved open the doors to find that the group had indeed vanished. Not that he was surprised; they most likely also had the Quick Travel feature.

 _ **You're not going to just follow after them, are you?,**_ Loki said.

 _I don't have much reason to stay here anymore._

 _ **You've done next to no fighting. It'd be a waste to return home now.**_

 _Says the Persona who complains about the enemies here not being worthy of his blade._

 _ **They're too weak to justify the effort.**_

0~*~0

Sojiro glanced up at the sound of the ringing bell to see Amamiya walk in, looking ready to pass out on his feet. The kid gave him a small wave as he passed him and slowly marched upstairs.

Sojiro frowned. He had seen that exact look on Goro more than a few times. The few times he had tried to bring it up were met with dismissals and excuses, albeit plausible ones. It was admittedly concerning to think that the kid had gotten involved with whatever Goro was doing, especially if it had to do with what he thought it did.

Regardless, he knew better than to try to bring it up with the kid. If Goro wasn't willing to bring it up with him, then Amamiya sure wasn't. Besides, for all he knew, it really could've been nothing serious.

Sojiro sighed. He was too old for this.

After locking up for the night and heading home, he soon came across something unexpected: Goro having considerable difficulty getting into the house. Specifically, he didn't seem to be able to get his key into the lock.

"Need some help?" Sojiro asked.

"I can do this," Goro said, sounding tired.

After watching him struggle for a bit longer, Sojiro took a closer look at what Goro was trying to do. "It might help if you flipped your key."

Goro stopped, looked at his key, and realized he was holding it upside down. "Oh."

After a few more tries with the key oriented correctly, Goro was able to get the door open.

"Guess I'm more tired than I thought…" Goro muttered.

He then staggered to the stairs and went up.

Sojiro glanced over to see Futaba peeking out from one of the doors. "You could've helped him, you know."

Futaba grinned impishly and slunk back into the room.


	7. Passing Time

Going back to the entrance of Kamoshida's Palace the long way hadn't been one of Goro's best decisions, but it was far from the worst. At the very least, he got some decent pocket change.

As he walked to school, he mulled over what he had learned the previous day. Apparently, Amamiya and his group believed that there was a "Treasure" in the depths of the Palace. In his explorations of various Palaces, Goro had occasionally encountered a shimmering light in the farthest reaches which Wakaba had believed to be the "core" of the Palace. It seemed likely that was the "Treasure" they were trying to find, though what they intended on doing afterwards, he wasn't sure.

Whatever they did, he hoped he'd be able to follow them next time they went in. It would be rather inconvenient for him if they went in without him aware of it. At least he knew they weren't likely to go in for at least a few days, if Amamiya still planned to stick with what he had said. The only real question was how Goro would know if they were going in or not. It would be substantially easier to know if he used Futaba and her hacking abilities, but then he would have to explain things that were dangerous for her to know. And he was definitely not willing to risk her life over something like this.

At least Kamoshida wasn't at the school gate this time.

0~*~0

Out of all the things Ren expected to see when he headed over to Ryuji to accept his invitation to hang out, a familiar-looking girl with black hair smooshing Ryuji's face with her hands was not one of them.

"Say it," said the girl.

"I am an adorable shiba inu," Ryuji said.

"Yes you are, and don't you forget it."

With that, the girl let go of his face and went down the stairs. Ren stared after her, baffled. "Who was that?"

"Mari Koizumi," Ryuji said, "one of the third-years. She's a little weird, but pretty nice."

Ren stared down the stairwell. _Is that what Ann meant?_

"Anyway, you came 'cause you saw my message, right?"

0~*~0

It felt odd to walk home without Goro, but Futaba knew it was something she would have to get used to. She couldn't depend on him forever. At least walking home from school instead of vice versa meant less of a chance of running into Kamoshida alone.

The train was, as always, packed with people and her height, as always, made it feel even more so. When she got to Shibuya, she gave an exaggerated gasp for breath as she got off the train.

"Isshiki-saaaaaan!"

Futaba glanced to the side to see two girls in Shujin uniforms running towards her, one with brown hair and one with black hair. She considered fleeing, but her legs decided to freeze instead.

The first girl to catch up with her, the brown-haired girl, said, "You're Isshiki-senpai's little sister, right!?"

"Y-Yeah…"

"What's he like at home!?"

Futaba didn't think it was a good idea to indulge their curiosity, but they didn't seem like they would just let her go. "He's, uh… really secretive."

"What does he do on no-school days?"

"He… goes out. I don't know what he usually does."

"Does he have any part-time jobs?"

"I think so, but I don't know where…"

The black-haired girl said, "Is he a good brother?"

"Uh… I think so."

"What do you two like to do together?"

"We… play games sometimes."

The conversation continued like that for considerably longer than Futaba expected.

"Where do you live?"

"...Why do you want to know?"

"'Cause _tons_ of people have-"

The black-haired girl elbowed the brown-haired girl in the side.

"We're just curious."

Futaba gave them a deadpan stare. _"Just curious," huh?_

"He hasn't told anyone where he lives and-"

 _Help me…_

0~*~0

 **Futaba:** Why are you so popular!?

Goro blinked at the message.

 **Goro:** Did something happen?

 **Futaba:** Let's just say…

 **Futaba:** If all your fangirls are like the ones I just met, it's no wonder you haven't told anyone where we live.

"Is that your sister?" Makoto asked, a hint of sadness in her voice.

Goro raised an eyebrow. "Yes. How could you tell?"

"The way your eyes lit up."

 _Was it really that noticeable of a reaction…?_ "...I take it you're having issues with your own sister?"

"I'm not sure I'd say 'issues,' but… From what I've heard, it sounds like you two are really close…"

It felt like there was something else that she wasn't saying, and Goro could easily guess what it was.

"Are you jealous?"

Makoto seemed to be caught somewhat off-guard. "Well… That's…"

"My sister and I are indeed close, though I'm curious about what you've heard. Considering what people are saying about the transfer student, I wouldn't be surprised if they were exaggerated in some way."

0~*~0

The next day, Ren was glad he had the foresight to bring his umbrella this time.

As he left school, he noticed a girl with a red highlight in her hair taking shelter under part of a building.

 _That must be Koizumi-senpai… Maybe I should talk to her…_

He walked up to her and sure enough, it was Koizumi.

She looked up from her phone. "Oh, it's you. Um… Amiyama?"

"Amamiya."

"Right. Can I help you with something?"

"Wanna hang out?"

"Oh, sure." She picked an umbrella off the ground. "Let's go to Central Street."

The two of them ended up wandering around Shibuya, with Koizumi pointing out various locations like a tour guide.

Eventually, she stopped walking. "Hey…"

"Yes?"

"If… How are you holding up? Y'know, in regards to the whole…"

Ren shrugged. "I'm okay."

Koizumi gave a weak laugh. "You seem really calm about this. If I were you, I'd probably be freaking out."

Ren didn't respond. If it wasn't for the Metaverse, he _would_ be freaking out over the threat of expulsion.

Koizumi turned to face him fully. "I know I already said this, but if there's anything you need, let me know." She paused. "Unless you need to intimidate Kamoshita for whatever reason. Then you should go to Isshiki-kun."

Ren raised an eyebrow. "Why him?"

"Well…"

-Early June, 2015-

"Hey, Isshiki!" Kamoshida said jovially.

Mari tensed up at the sound of his voice; by now, it was practically an instinctive reaction. She slowly turned around to see Kamoshida, smiling widely, standing next to Goro.

"What is it?" Goro said flatly.

"I've seen your performance in volleyball! You're more than good enough for the team. If you want to join, I could easily pull a few strings to let you in right now."

There was no change in his tone or expression, but Mari could practically feel the implied threat in his words.

Goro, after a few seconds, said, "No thanks. I'm busy enough as it is." He then turned and started to walk away.

Kamoshida's expression dropped into a neutral one before he grabbed Goro by the arm and forced the boy to face him.

"I think we both know," Kamoshida said in a low voice, "that that's not an offer."

Goro shrugged off Kamoshida's arm and hardened his stance, staring him down. Kamoshida returned the gesture, putting his hands on his hips.

Mari glanced up and down the school hallway; there was no one but her, Kamoshida, and Goro. No one that could relieve the unbearable tension.

Kamoshida suddenly jumped away, putting his arm in front of himself defensively. "Wh-Why are you... smiling like that?"

Mari was behind Goro and thus couldn't see his face, but she noticed that Goro had shifted his stance, looking like he was about to pounce on Kamoshida.

Goro took a step towards Kamoshida; Kamoshida took a step back. "S-Stop it! Quit making that face!"

Goro stayed silent. Kamoshida eventually turned and left, muttering, "Creepy-ass bastard…"

When Goro turned back towards Mari, he had a carefully neutral expression. "I wasn't sure that would work."

Mari gave him a wide-eyed stare.

-0~*~0-

"That was the only time I ever saw Kamoshida actually intimidated by someone."

Ren thought back to the picture of Goro with a creepy smile. "That's… interesting."

"Isshiki-kun's a good person. Self-minded, but still a good person."

"Hey Mari-chan!"

Ren jolted. The voice sounded exactly like Morgana and yet definitely wasn't coming from the cat in his bag.

A girl ran up to the two of them and said, "Are we still on for next Tuesday?"

"I think so," Koizumi said. "You might want to check with Haruna, though."

"Great, thanks."

She then ran off.

Ren blinked. "Who was that?"

"Akari," Koizumi said. "One of my friends. What's with that face?"

"Uh… She…" _sounds exactly like my talking cat_ "has a very androgynous voice."

Koizumi raised an eyebrow. "You were bothered by _that_?"

"I was surprised."

Koizumi stared at him for several moments before looking at her phone. "It's getting late… We should probably head home."

Ren gave a slight bow. "It was nice talking to you, Koizumi-senpai."

Koizumi returned the bow. "Likewise. And please, call me Mari."

0~*~0

It was still raining when Ren got back to Leblanc. The first thing he noticed was Goro washing dishes in the sink.

"Hey, you got a minute?" Sakura-san said. "Somethin' I wanna ask you. C'mere, let's have a chat."

Ren, curious, walked up to him. "What is it, sir?"

Sakura-san seemed mildly surprised. "You'll talk with me? You're being unusually well-behaved…"

Ren nodded.

"Good. There're a lot of things I want to ask you. I'll clean up, so just wait there."

Ren heard the faucet being turned off and glanced over to see Goro drying his hands, apparently interested in what Sakura-san had to say to him.

Ren leaned against one of the booth seats as Goro sat down nearby. Once Sakura-san had finished cleaning up, he stood in front of Ren and said, "Hey, how's school? You're not causing any trouble, are you?"

"I'm not," Ren said.

"Good. I've gotta report to your probation officer twice a month. It's already a pain in the ass as is, so please don't make me have to write even more crap. Got that? This society is kept in check by laws and authority figures."

"It's even better when those authority figures are held to the laws to the same degree as everyone else," Goro interjected, smiling innocently.

Sakura-san glared at him. "Quiet, you." He turned back to Ren. "You can go and get yourself killed if you want, but don't go dragging other people into your mess. The last thing we need is more idiots like you roaming around."

Sakura-san's phone then started ringing. He answered the call and, in a much softer tone, said, "Hm? What's wrong? Yeah, I'm heading out now. Sorry about that. ...I know. The usual, right?"

 _...Do I want to know who he's talking to?_

"Okay. I'll see you later." He then hung up and put away his phone. "As you can see, I'm pretty damn busy both at work and in my private life. If you could lend a hand, it'd really be a great help…"

"Goro-san won't mind?" Ren asked.

"Of course not," Goro replied pleasantly. "I'm not here every day, after all. And besides, Sakura-san needs all the help he can get."

Ren noticed Sakura-san grimacing at Goro's words.

"In that case," Ren said, "I'd be glad to."

Sakura-san smiled. "Now we're talking. Either way, I won't ask you to work for free. If you agree to help me, then… I'll teach you how to make the perfect cup of coffee. Not a bad trade, eh?"

Ren didn't feel that was an equal exchange, but he didn't feel like he was in a position to disagree. "Sounds interesting."

"All right. Looks like we've got ourselves a deal. I'll be counting on your help. See ya later."

0~*~0

Futaba slumped against the bench and gave an exaggerated sigh.

"What's wrong?" Goro asked.

"Your fangirls."

"Have they been bothering you?"

"A little bit."

Goro stayed silent.

"Social interaction is a thing I'm still learning and dealing with them isn't helping."

"Would you like me to do something about them?"

"What if that makes it worse?"

Anything Goro would've said was interrupted by a cry of, "Isshi-kun!"

Futaba hid behind Goro as best she could and peeked out to see a girl with fluffy, light brown hair in her gym uniform briskly walking towards them.

"Ah, Haru," Goro said.

Futaba jolted upright. _Haru? He called her by her first name?_

Upon noticing Futaba, Haru said, "Oh, is that your sister I've been hearing about?"

"Why, yes." Goro stood up, lifting Futaba up with him. "Futaba, this is Haru. We were classmates during our second year."

Haru gave a small bow. "It's nice to meet you, Futaba-san."

Futaba stayed quiet, scrutinizing the other girl. Haru's smile faltered at her prolonged silence.

Goro, seeing his chance, said, "Haru, I take it you're here to ask for my assistance with the garden?"

"Oh, y-yes, if you wouldn't mind…"

"Of course I wouldn't mind. Just let me get changed into my gym uniform first."

Goro then speed walked away, leaving the two girls alone.

Futaba walked up to Haru and pointed at her, shaking slightly.

"Y-Yes?" Haru said, concerned and confused.

"You! On semi-first name basis with Goro! Why?"

"Uh… He said he wasn't comfortable with me calling him by his first name…"

"Not that part. I meant with him calling _you_ by your first name."

"Oh. He, uh, started doing that after I talked with him about… something that happened shortly before our second year."

Futaba lowered her hand and stared at the ground. "O-Oh."

Haru hastily added, "Though we had known each other for a few months beforehand. Did he ever mention me?"

"Uh, n-no. Just about this one teacher I should stay away from."

"…Who?"

Futaba looked up at her. "Do I really have to tell you?"

Haru didn't answer.

Futaba took a few steps forward. "By the way…"

"Y-Yes?"

"How'd you and Goro meet?"

"Oh. He just came up to me one day and asked to help me with the garden. It just continued from there."

Before Futaba could ask for clarification, Goro returned, wearing his gym clothes. "Thank you for waiting. Would you like to join us, Futaba?"

Futaba glanced between the two of them. "Um…"

The ensuing silence lasted for almost a minute before Haru said, "Um… Futaba-san?" Goro whispered into Haru's ear. "Huh? …Um, Futaba-san, I won't be offended if you say no."

"Oh. Um, I'd rather go home."

"All right. I'll see you later."

Futaba then walked away and Haru turned back towards Goro. "Your sister is…"

"Different than what you would've expected?"

Haru reluctantly nodded.

Goro chuckled. "I don't blame you. She's not the kind of person people would expect I would interact with. Though I'm sure you two will get along."

0~*~0

As Goro and Haru worked on the garden, Kamoshida watched them from a third-story window, scowling.

He was frustrated. Frustrated at his fear of that defiant bastard's creepy expression, at how long Kamoshida had been unable to retaliate, and at how popular that bastard was among the students.

He was severely tempted to go up to Okumura and tell her about Isshiki's past, but not only would that risk him losing the blackmail he had over Isshiki, it could potentially backfire and lead to them becoming even closer. It didn't strike him as likely, but it was still possible. Regardless, he was more worried about losing anything he had over Isshiki. His knowledge of that bastard's past was the only thing keeping Isshiki from… Okay, he wasn't sure what, but he knew it was keeping Isshiki from doing _something_.

 _If I'm going to get back at that bastard, it's going to be through his sister._

Was it risky? Yes; an attempted suicide just over a week after another would draw media attention and the principal could only do so much (which was why he never bothered Okumura; he knew better than to risk incurring the wrath of a CEO). But he hadn't let how risky a decision was stop him in a long time and it wasn't going to stop him now.

 _Now, how do I go about doing this…?_

0~*~0

As Ren walked through Shibuya Station, a splash of orange caught his eye and he looked to see two girls in Shujin uniforms apparently talking to Goro-san's sister, who seemed to be trying to withdraw into the wall.

Ren took a deep breath and walked over to them.

"Aren't you going to answer us?"

"What's going on here?" Ren asked.

The two girls whipped around, staring at him with scared expressions.

"Uh…" one of the girls said. "Nothing. Nothing at all."

The two girls speed walked away and Goro-san's sister slumped forward, dramatically sighing in relief. "Thanks."

"Do they bother you often?"

"Not exactly 'often' but… It's getting annoying."

"Who are they?"

"Some of Goro's fangirls."

"Why were they bothering you?"

"They wanted to know more about Goro… Why did his popularity have to rub off on me?"

Ren shifted a bit and adjusted his glasses. "Um… By the way, I don't think I ever got your name."

The girl straightened up. "I'm Futaba Isshiki," she said tiredly. "And you're Ren Amamiya, the guy who was wrongfully accused of assault."

"…Did Goro tell you about that?"

Futaba looked up at him. "I wanna go home."

"You wanna head back together?"

Futaba stared at him.

"You live in Yongen-Jaya, right?"

Futaba nodded after a moment.

"Do you not wanna be seen with me?"

"No… I just didn't know you knew where we lived."

While they were on the train, pressed uncomfortably close together, Ren finally asked the question that had been on his mind for a while.

"So about those flowers in your hair-"

"It's a hairclip. It was a birthday gift from Goro."

0~*~0

Futaba watched Amamiya head into Leblanc, unsure if he had noticed her staring.

While she didn't think there would be any harm in him knowing that they lived in Sojiro's house, she was currently inclined to continue respecting Goro's insistence on trying to keep it secret, if only because of her experience with being questioned by his fangirls.

 _So much for going home by myself._

 **I feel like I should put in a warning about there being a scene from Kamoshida's POV.**


	8. Near Hit

Futaba, more than ever, felt extremely aware of her phone in her school bag. The previous night, she had uploaded copies of the more incriminating videos of Kamoshida to her phone. She couldn't really say why; she just felt safer with it being easily accessible.

"So Futaba," Goro asked, "what do you think of Haru?"

Futaba briefly looked up at him before shrugging. "Soft-spoken and formal. She seems a lot better than some of your fangirls."

"She is."

Futaba glanced around at some of the students passing them. "She said that you approached her offering to help with her garden."

"…I had originally approached her with the intention of learning more about her father. She turned out to be quite the respectable companion."

"Her father?"

"Her full name is Haru Okumura."

Futaba looked back up at him. "Okumura? As in Okumura Foods?"

"Yes."

"Whoa. Did you find out what you wanted to?"

"No, but I did find out other interesting information about him."

"Like what?"

Goro looked around before saying in a low voice, "Apparently, he used to be a respectable father but nowadays sees her as a tool for him to use for his personal gain."

"…Hmm."

"I'd elaborate, but I don't want anyone to overhear me."

0~*~0

"Mari has a friend that sounds exactly like Morgana," Ren said.

Ann quirked up an eyebrow. "Really?"

Morgana poked his head out of the desk. "Really?"

"You couldn't tell?" Ren whispered.

"I… guess not?"

"Maybe it's that thing where your voice sounds different to yourself than it does to other people," Ann suggested.

Morgana tilted his head back. "Eh?"

"I've heard it has something to do with the bones in your head. Like, you hear them vibrating along with your voice."

Morgana tilted his head.

"Eh… I'll show you some other time."

Ren was silently glad that most of his class had chosen to eat lunch outside of the classroom. The few looks he was already getting were enough to make him nervous.

"By the way," Ann quietly asked, "any idea when we're heading to the hideout?"

Ren blinked. "Today or tomorrow. Probably today. There're some things I wanna get beforehand, though."

0~*~0

Futaba anxiously watched the clock, silently pleading for the last bell to ring. The sense of uneasiness she had felt since arriving at school hadn't lessened up at all, and she was eager to get home and relax. As soon as the bell sounded, Futaba crammed her stuff into her school bag as quickly as possible before flying over, shoving open the classroom door… and almost immediately being stopped by one of the kids in her gym class.

 _What is it!?_ , she mentally screamed.

"You're Isshiki-san, right?"

She nodded.

"Our gym teacher wanted to talk with you. He's waiting in the gym."

The student walked off and alarm bells started going off in Futaba's head. Why on Earth would her gym teacher have asked another student to tell her to meet him, and why would he want to meet with her in the gym? Her mind jumped to a sinister explanation: it was actually a trap by Kamoshida so he could…

She jolted herself out of that line of thought. If it was a trap, then not going seemed to be the best option… but if it actually _was_ her gym teacher wanting to talk to her, not going wouldn't be good… And if was a trap and she didn't go, then Kamoshida would probably retaliate in some other way…

Unsure what to do, she got out of the classroom doorway and sent a text to Goro.

 **Futaba:** Someone from my gym class said that my gym teacher wants to talk to me. Sounds suspicious.

Then she waited. And waited. And waited. When Goro hadn't sent a reply after five minutes, she sent him another text.

 **Futaba:** Goro? Are you there?

Another five minutes and there was still no reply. Futaba groaned. She didn't have Haru's phone number and wasn't supposed to have Amamiya's. There wasn't anyone else she could ask to accompany her. Sighing in frustration, she put her phone in her bag and headed for the gym. Every step of the way, her mind was screaming at her not to do it. Should she have listened? Probably.

Upon reaching the door to the gym, Futaba hesitated. _Maybe I should've texted Amamiya after all…_

She cautiously opened the door and peeked inside. There was nobody there. She reached into her bag, grabbed her phone…

…And felt hands grab her, one covering her mouth and the other wrapping around her waist as she was lifted into the air. She flailed around, kicking at her assailant as she was quickly carried into the gym equipment storage room. As soon as the door closed behind them, her assailant's grip on her loosened enough for her to slip out. She ran forward several feet, halfway across the room, before turning around to see Kamoshida standing there, slightly bent over and grimacing. He didn't seem intent on trying to grab her again and she quickly realized why: the only way in and out of the room was the door he was currently blocking.

"So it really was a trap… Why?"

"Had to make sure you'd come," Kamoshida said, his voice strained.

"No, I mean why did you want to get me in the first place?"

"You're Goro Isshiki's little sister."

"What does that have to do with-?"

"Shut up."

He suddenly lunged at Futaba and she jumped away, crashing into something behind her and flailing to keep her balance.

Then she noticed she was still holding her phone.

"I-I have evidence of what you did to Suzui!"

Kamoshida took a step back and raised an eyebrow, apparently curious. "Oh?"

A part of her said that she should be more focused on trying to get away than on what she was currently doing, but Futaba persisted. She unlocked her phone, opened one of the videos as fast as she could, and started playing it, turning the screen towards Kamoshida.

" _Please excuse me…"_

" _Sorry for suddenly calling you here like that."_

Kamoshida's eyes widened.

Futaba paused the video and swiped to the next one, playing it.

Kamoshida's eyes somehow widened even more. "Y-You… You _bugged my office!?_ "

The look of incredulous disbelief on his face made her smile. "With multiple cameras. And if you do anything to me or my brother, I'll send these to the police."

Kamoshida's expression morphed into one of teeth-bared rage, but he didn't move towards her. Instead he turned, kicked over a large bucket, pointed at the door and snarled, "Get out."

Futaba moved quickly, giving him a berth as wide as possible, not taking her eyes off of him. She carefully started to open the door…

And Kamoshida lunged at her.

Futaba shoved the door open and ran. Ran out the gym and down the hallways until she ran into something soft and fell over.

The yelp and cat-like screech that came with it sounded familiar.

"Are you okay!?"

That was definitely Sakamoto's voice, which meant…

She pushed herself onto her knees and sure enough, there was Amamiya, lying on the floor, staring at her. "Isshiki-san?"

"H-Hide me…" she said, panting.

"Huh?"

"Hide me from Kamoshida!"

0~*~0

"Think we'll be safe here?" Ann asked, panting.

"Safe enough," Ren said, also panting. "For now."

"Never would've thought of a dark alley like this as being 'safe'…" Futaba mumbled.

The group had decided to run and hide in an alleyway a fair distance from the school. It wasn't the best place to hide, but it would do for the moment.

"So, uh," Ryuji said, turning to Futaba, "what exactly happened?"

Futaba stared at the ground. "Some guy from my gym class said that our gym teacher wanted to talk to me, but it turned out to be a trap by Kamoshida. I got away in time, but…"

Ryuji wordlessly took out his phone and started typing.

"What are you doing?" Ann asked, leaning to look at his screen.

"Telling Isshiki about his sister."

"Since when did you have his number?"

"Since last year."

Futaba glanced up at him. "…What are you gonna tell him?"

Ryuji showed her his phone screen, Ren also bending down to get a look.

 **Ryuji:** Kamoshida almost got your sister. We're hiding out in an alley.

Futaba blinked. "...I think that'll work. Might wanna tell him _which_ alley, though."

"Oh, right." Ryuji quickly typed out and sent another message.

Ann looked down. "For him to try it again after only a week…"

Morgana poked his head out of Ren's bag. "He must feel pretty confident in himself."

"...It pisses me off."

"... _Kitty._ "

The four of them looked at Futaba, who was staring intently at Morgana. Before any of them could say anything, Futaba walked up to Ren and tried reaching for the cat. Ren bent down slightly and the moment Morgana was in her reach, Futaba began roughly petting and rubbing his face.

"So soft…"

Morgana tried to pull away. "Ow! Be gentle!"

"Please don't hurt my cat," Ren said.

Futaba's fingers moved to scritch at Morgana's neck. "Hey, that's-!" His eyes closed and he started purring. "Ohhhh _yeahhhhh_ … That's the spot…"

As she scritched him, Futaba said, "How long does it take for someone to get to here from Shujin?"

"Well," Ann said, "it took us about-"

" _ **FUTABA!**_ "

All of them jumped at the shriek as Goro skidded to a halt beside them, looking like one of his worst nightmares had just come true.

"I'm okay!" Futaba said quickly, putting her hands up. "I'm okay! Disaster upon me was avoided!"

Goro stared at her for a few seconds before pulling her into a tight-looking hug. Futaba, with a strained smile, returned the hug as best as she could.

Ren glanced around, wondering if any passerby had stopped to look after Goro's outburst.

"Um, Goro," Futaba wheezed, "you're crushing me a little."

Goro, after a moment, slowly released her from the hug, keeping one hand on her shoulder. The horror in his expression had lessened, but he still looked terrified.

He looked around at the group and said, "What are you doing here?"

"Hiding," Ryuji said.

"Your sister ran into me and asked me to hide her from Kamoshida," Ren said.

"Yeah," Futaba said, smiling. "Knocked him over and everything."

Goro's expression remained unchanged. "How did you get away from him?"

Futaba looked around at all of them. "I blackmailed him."

Ryuji blinked. "Wait what?"

Futaba grinned widely. "I blackmailed Kamoshida."

A long, long pause.

"What!?" Goro yelled. "How!?"

"And with what!?" Ann asked.

"With very incriminating videos," Futaba answered. "Don't ask how I got them."

Goro ran his hand through his hair. "...Did you bug Kamoshida's office?"

Futaba's smile faltered.

"When!?"

"...During the volleyball rally."

"You snuck into the PE faculty office during the volleyball rally… and planted bugs for blackmail-gathering purposes."

"Well if I _hadn't_ ," Futaba retorted, "I'd be in a _lot_ more trouble right now."

Goro grimaced and looked off to the side.

"...Where were you when I first texted you?"

"...Trying to find my phone."

Silence ensued for several moments before Futaba grabbed Goro's arm and said, "Can we go to Leblanc?"

Goro looked mildly surprised. "Oh, sure." He looked around at the group. "Thank you for looking after my sister. Now then, if you'll excuse us…"

The two of them started to walk away, but Goro felt himself be jerked backwards and looked to see Futaba grabbing Ren's arm with her other hand.

Goro glanced at Ren then back at Futaba. "Do you want him to come with?"

She nodded.

Ren looked at Ann and Ryuji. "I guess we'll do it tomorrow, then."

The two of them nodded and Ren let himself be taken away by the siblings.

0~*~0

Leblanc was less busy than Ren expected it to be, only about half full. Sakura-san gave them a brief glance as they entered… and promptly did a double-take.

"Well hey," he said, his voice surprisingly soft, "haven't seen you here in a while."

Futaba shrugged and plopped onto one of the bar chairs, slumping over the counter.

"Bad day at school?"

"Tiring," Futaba muttered.

"Anything I can do to help?"

"I want curry."

"Sure." He looked over at Goro and Ren, who were still standing in front of the door. "Don't just stand there, make yourselves useful!"

Ren quickly dropped off his school bag and Morgana in the attic before putting on an apron and busying himself with washing some dishes, his mind drifting back to the exchange he had just seen.

 _Sounds like Sakura-san and Futaba know each other pretty well… I wonder if…_

Ren glanced over at Goro. The other boy had a blank, wide-eyed expression as he absentmindedly stirred the curry. Ren frowned.

 _Maybe I should talk to him about this later…_

The three of them stayed there throughout the afternoon and into the evening, Goro and Ren helping make orders for the trickle of customers filtering in and out of Leblanc and Futaba eating curry with a sad expression. Morgana didn't come down until after the last of the customers had left, jumping onto the chair next to Futaba and allowing her to pet him, even when she got somewhat rough.

Eventually, Sakura-san hung up his apron and said, "I'm going home now. You kids be sure to lock up when you leave."

"Of course, sir," Goro said politely.

"Don't have to be so formal with me…" Sakura-san muttered as he left, flipping the sign on the door to "closed".

All of them were silent for a few moments.

Before it could become oppressive, Goro said, "Futaba, how are you feeling now?"

"…A lot better," she said, sitting upright. "How 'bout you?"

Goro froze up, apparently not expecting the question.

"What, did you think I wouldn't notice?"

"Uh…" Goro glanced back at Ren, looking profoundly uncomfortable. "Er… By the way, Amamiya, I don't believe you've told me what your cat's name is."

Ren blinked. "…I told you a few days ago that his name is Morgana."

"Morgana?" Futaba questioned. "You gave a male cat a female name?"

Ren blinked again. "Morgana chose the name. And I'm actually not sure of Morgana's sex."

Goro rounded the counter over to Morgana lying on the chair and lifted the cat's tail to peer at his bottom.

Morgana looked uneasily at Goro. "Ren… What is he doing…?"

"…I think it's male," Goro said, letting go of Morgana's tail.

Futaba raised an eyebrow. "So kitty chose the name himself?"

Ren nodded.

Futaba stared at Morgana for a few seconds before suddenly lifting him out of the chair, holding him under his front limbs. "You're the kitty that Koizumi girl showed us."

"It took you that long to notice?" Ren heard Goro mutter.

Futaba shot Goro a displeased look before going back to examining Morgana.

"Do you like cats, Isshiki-san?" Ren asked.

"You can call me Futaba," she said, putting Morgana back down. "And I guess I do. Where'd you find him?"

Ren mentally scrambled to come up with something. "I… found him in a back alley in Shibuya."

The blank stares he got from both siblings made it clear that neither of them believed him.

"Well regardless of where you found him," Goro said, "he seems to have taken quite a liking to you, considering how much time he spends in your school bag."

Ren narrowed his eyes slightly. "…There's no way you could've noticed that."

"Not really, but I'm still right, aren't I?"

Ren didn't respond.

Goro tugged at his sleeves. "Well, as long as you don't get caught, I don't think it'll be a problem… assuming you would get in trouble if you were caught."

Before Ren could ask for clarification, Futaba, standing up from the chair, said, "Much as I'd like to stay, there are things I need to do before it gets too late."

"In that case," Goro said, turning back to Ren, "it seems we'll be taking our leave now. See you tomorrow, Amamiya."

"See you," Ren said as the siblings left, Goro locking the door from the outside.

"I'm quite curious about those two," Morgana said.

"So am I."

Ren had to admit that part of him had expected for that to have kicked off a Confidant with Goro or Futaba (or even both of them), but he supposed it was too early for that. After all, as far as Goro knew, Ren would be getting expelled in a few weeks, and Futaba likely thought the same as well, if she had heard about it. It made sense that neither of them would want to get too close to him right now.

 _Huh. When did I start thinking of him as just Goro?_

0~*~0

Kamoshida silently fumed as he lied in his bed. Not only had his plan to finally retaliate against the Isshikis backfired spectacularly, but the little bitch had kicked him in the balls in the process. It had long since stopped hurting, but still.

His phone went off and he flicked it open…

…And what he saw nearly made him drop it.

 **?:** As I was saying before you interrupted me earlier…

The chat icon was of a cartoonish cat head with no eyes and sharp teeth.

 **?:** Don't think that incapacitating me will save you.

 **?:** I've set my computer up so that, in the event I am away from it for a certain period of time, it will automatically send the videos I showed you and more to the police and several media outlets.

 **?:** I can add or subtract from the timer as I wish, so it would be best if you behaved yourself around us.

Kamoshida blinked. _What the hell?_

 **?:** And in case you think you can use this as evidence…

His phone suddenly went dark, and Kamoshida hastily turned it back on, only to find that the thread had deleted itself.

 _What the hell…?_

 **?:** And yes, that was real.

A single, simple sentence. Eyebrow-raising, perhaps, but not overtly threatening or hostile.

Kamoshida tossed his phone to the side and groaned. The situation was too surreal for him to feel properly angry. The one student that pissed him off the most was the one student he could do the least about. And said student's sister was apparently some kind of master hacker. Just what were the odds of that?

 _Could this week get any worse for me?_

 **Originally Mishima was going to be in this chapter, telling the PTs Kamoshida had called another girl into his office (back when his method of luring her in was slightly different). Sorry Mishima.**

 **This took longer to write than I would've liked it to… At least I got it done before my birthday.**


	9. Black Mask

**Self-imposed deadlines. They don't work.**

 _She was floating. Floating underwater in a vast ocean._

 _As soon as she realized it, Futaba started looking around. The light coming from above was red for some reason, making the water seem darker than it otherwise would be. Looking down, she could make out large, rectangular shapes just below where the water became dark._

 _Along with a dark figure slowly sinking into the depths._

 _Goro._

 _Futaba immediately began swimming towards him. She didn't even know how she knew it was him, it was hard to see anything, she just knew._

 _She swam closer and closer, grabbing one of his arms and yanking him upwards into her lap._

 _And then the water vanished, leaving them floating in a black nothingness._

 _Green holographic rings of light surrounded them and Futaba idly noticed that she was now wearing something that had green Tron lines on it, but ignored it in favor of Goro._

 _His breathing seemed normal, if somewhat labored. Darkness covered his body except for a gap over his face reminiscent of a broken mask._

 _Futaba gently shook him by the shoulders. "Goro?"_

 _His eyes just barely opened. "Futaba…?" he breathed._

0~*~0

Futaba woke up.

Her surroundings struck her as _wrong_ before she remembered that she had gone to sleep in Goro's room.

 _So that was a dream… Weird dream. Though considering what almost happened yesterday, I'll take weird dreams over nightmares._

She grabbed her glasses off the "nightstand" and looked over at Goro. His back was turned towards her and he was still clutching that torso-sized plushie of his, but he seemed too tense to be asleep.

"I know you're awake," she said.

Goro didn't respond.

"…Goro?"

Just as she started to think that he really was still asleep…

"Are you sure you still want to go to school today?" he mumbled.

"I'm sure. I don't think he'll try to hurt us, considering what I've got on him."

"…If you say so."

0~*~0

The moment Shujin came into view, Goro felt rage begin to bubble up within him. It stayed there the entire day, festering but not overflowing.

(He was glad he didn't see Kamoshida. He didn't think he'd have been able to hold back if he did.)

By lunchtime, the sensation of Loki restlessly clawing in the back of his mind made him even surer of his decision.

When classes were finally over, Goro headed straight for one of the less-used stairwells and, after making sure nobody was looking, activated the Meta-Nav. Going inside a Palace while inside its corresponding location wasn't something he did under non-emergency circumstances, but he was too impatient to head out to the alley first. And he _especially_ didn't want to have to go through the chapel if he could avoid it.

He materialized right in front of the stairs leading to the roof.

 _How convenient._

Smirking, he ran up the stairs with red, serrated sword in hand, utterly failing to notice the other person that had warped in with him.

0~*~0

The end of the school day couldn't come fast enough for Ren. After what had happened the previous day, it was clear that they had to take Kamoshida's Treasure as soon as possible, before he could try to hurt anyone else.

Meeting at the hideout was basically a formality; as soon as all of them were there, they left without any words exchanged, walking as fast as they could without seeming too suspicious.

At least, until someone stopped Ren on the first floor by grabbing his arm.

Ren turned to see Mari standing there, hunched over and staring at him with a hollow, horrified look in her eyes. "Amamaya-kun…"

Ren decided against correcting her. "Yes?"

"Isshiki-kun's sister…"

 _Oh. So she heard about that._ "She's okay. Kamoshida's attempt failed."

"Are… Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I spent the whole rest of the day with her."

Mari's gaze drifted away, the horror in her eyes replaced with relief. "She's okay… She's okay…"

Mari slowly walked off, her gait unsteady.

Ren stared after her. _Just how long has she been agonizing over this?_

"Why'd she ask us instead of Isshiki-kun?" Ann wondered aloud.

"Who knows?" Ryuji said, shrugging. "Maybe she just ran into us first."

Once they were back in the Palace, they went straight to the safe room outside the chapel and used the shortcut Ren had opened to get to the hallway right after it. Then it was down a spiral staircase to open a locked chest and back up the stairs, through a door, then up some more spiral stairs to the roof.

And what they saw made them all stop.

Out on the roof, in the section littered with crates, was a black humanoid figure surrounded by Shadows that were pelting it with attacks.

"What the hell…!?" Ryuji muttered.

"Sh-Should we do something?" Ann asked.

Before anyone could answer, a red aura surrounded the figure and above it materialized a striped black and white monstrosity of a Persona wielding a glowing red sword. The Persona spun its sword and what Ren assumed was a Curse attack struck all the Shadows, annihilating them.

The group stared, stunned, at the mysterious Persona-user.

"Did… Did he just…?" Ryuji whispered.

The figure turned towards them and Ren suddenly realized that all of them had unknowingly moved out from behind the doorway. Out in full view of the other Persona-user.

The figure bolted away from them and Ren scrambled to follow, hearing his teammates following behind him.

The figure ran past the door and climbed up onto a merlon before jumping onto a ledge running along the roof. Ren continued to chase and climb after them, finally noticing the huge tower they were approaching.

Ren climbed through a window in the tower the Persona-user had gone through, jumped down into a small room, and went through a set of opened doors…

…To see a room the likes of which he hadn't seen before in the Palace, tinted purple and with sections of the floor rising or lowering as they approached.

"Wh-What's… going on?" Ann said, panting. "Did… Did we lose that guy?"

"I…" Morgana huffed, "I think we did."

"Who the hell was that…?" Ryuji said.

"I… I have no idea…" Morgana said, looking worried. "I didn't think there was anyone else that could enter the Metaverse besides us…"

"Just how long have you been doin' this?"

"Uh… I don't know. I didn't have any way of keeping track of time until I met you guys…"

"Anyway," Ann interrupted, "where are we?"

"It looked like a tower," Ren said.

"Well, yeah, but what's up with this design?"

"The distortion is getting stronger…" Morgana said. "The Treasure has got to be nearby!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Ren thought he saw a shadow dart out, but when he looked, there was nothing there.

0~*~0

It was embarrassing, frankly, for him to end up like this. But, he supposed, it was understandable for his sheer anger to make him more reckless.

Still, to get ambushed on the roof and be surrounded by an almost absurd number of Shadows… It seemed like such an amateur mistake to make.

All Goro could do was try to endure whatever they threw at him until there was long enough of a pause. He was starting to sway by the time it came, and Lady Justice was practically screaming at him to heal, but he summoned Loki and cast Maeiga…

…And watched in surprise and fascination as it morphed into a Curse attack more powerful than any he had seen before.

And more draining than any he had seen before; he felt as though that one spell had burned through half his total SP (though a quick check revealed that it was more like a third).

Goro glanced around to see if there were any other Shadows around… and quickly noticed the group of people standing in the doorway leading to the roof. All staring at him.

 _Shit!_

Goro turned and ran, scrambling to climb up to the roof and running along the edge towards the tower.

He heard footsteps behind him but didn't dare look back lest he lose any momentum. He couldn't let himself be caught. Not here. Not now. Not by these people.

He climbed through a window on the tower, jumped down, and ran through the doors, flattening himself against the wall next to it and enshrouding himself with shadows.

The group burst through the doors, panting heavily and not looking in his direction, apparently distracted by the room they were in.

"Wh-What's… going on?" Takamaki said, panting. "Did… Did we lose that guy?"

"I…" Morgana huffed, "I think we did."

Much as he knew he should flee, Goro couldn't help but listen in on their conversation, feeling a twinge of irritation at Morgana not knowing how long it had been in the Metaverse.

As soon as he detected an end to the conversation, he darted towards the nearby hallway, being careful not to move too fast.

One of the many abilities Loki had given him was the ability to "enshroud yourself in shadows," which apparently made him blend in with his surroundings to some degree, making it take longer for enemy Shadows to notice him, though the cover vanished if he ran too fast or attacked something. Unfortunately, he had no idea if it was as effective against humans as it was Shadows, and now wasn't a good time to test that.

He grimaced as he passed busts of female chests and pillars of female torsos bent at impossible angles, silently glad that Wakaba wasn't there to see it. Who knew what she would've done…

He snuck past a few Shadow guards, briefly stopped at a safe room (because why not), and ran up some stairs that rose up as he approached. He couldn't help but feel idly curious about his surroundings, wondering why the distortion manifested as it did. It was something he had noticed early on, for environmental distortion to apparently increase with cognitive distortion, but never fully considered before Wakaba.

Goro felt more than a little uncomfortable at the small statues of female hips in the next room that always had the rear end facing him regardless of his location. He wasn't sure if the fact that they were still clothed made it better or worse.

He went up two more flights of stairs to find something of a branched path. An eyeless bust of Kamoshida was next to one that just screamed "trap" and sure enough, giant scythes began swinging across the path just before Goro could enter. Goro felt moderately sure that he could make it across if he was careful, but he didn't feel like taking the risk and so went the other, normal-looking path.

Only for a section of the floor to rise up and block his way.

 _I don't have time for this,_ Goro thought, and summoned Lady Justice.

A blindfolded woman with a white dress and wings materialized behind Goro, grabbed him by the waist, and lifted him onto the lowest part of the wall before vanishing. Goro dropped down, ignoring the treasure chest he passed, and sliced through the single guard in the hallway.

Then it was up yet another set of stairs into a room with busts of Kamoshida that seemed to turn as Goro passed them. Trying to ignore them, he approached what seemed to be another set of rising stairs… only these didn't rise no matter how close Goro got to them. Just as he began to consider jumping to each landing, a voice spoke up from behind him.

"Hmph. You are gravely mistaken if you think stairs will appear for you whenever you'd like."

Goro turned around to see a Guard Captain materialize.

"I take it you're the one keeping them from appearing?" Goro said.

It nodded. "This majestic tower penetrating the sky represents the admirable King Kamoshida's most sacred place… It is nowhere for a child like yourself! Prepare for your punishment!"

Goro summoned Lady Justice as the Guard Captain transformed into what he could only describe as a torn-off Mara head.

Goro smirked and leapt into the air, landing on Lady Justice's folded hands.

She then threw him up onto the platform the stairs led to and vanished.

It took the Guard Captain a few seconds to realize what had happened. "Wha-? Hey! You can't do that!"

"I just did," Goro taunted.

"Get back down here!"

"I don't have time to waste on you."

Goro ignored the Shadow's continued protests and went up another set of rising stairs, still smirking. Messing with Shadows was always fun.

0~*~0

Ren dashed up the stairs, the words of that… green… _thing_ they had just fought still ringing in his head.

" _I won't let you get away like that one from earlier!"_

It had almost certainly been the figure in black they had seen on the roof, and Ren couldn't help but be worried about what that person was planning to do.

They reached the top and…

"The hell?" Ryuji said.

To their left was a giant door flanked by torso statues. The one on the right was sliced in half, the top half on the ground in front of the door, which itself had a large, vertical scorch mark down the middle.

"I'm guessing this is the work of that black masked person we saw earlier…" Morgana said.

"Why's he even doing- wait," Ryuji said, eyes widening. "What if he's planning to-?"

Everyone's eyes widened as they realized what Ryuji was saying and Ren frantically looked around for another way up, finding one in the intact pillar.

He climbed the pillar and through a window into the throne room, crouching on a balcony-like structure.

And what he saw was about the last thing he would've expected.

0~*~0

The doors to the throne room slammed open, nearly knocking them off their hinges.

" _KAMOSHIDA!_ "

The Shadows jumped and turned to see Goro in the doorway, Loki floating behind him.

" **G-Guards!"** Shadow Kamoshida stammered. **"Kill him!"**

Goro and Loki rushed forward, their blades slicing through the guards before they could even transform. Once they were all gone, Goro turned to face the throne to see nobody there. He slowly scanned the room, feeling Loki hovering behind him.

He saw something move from behind a pillar and dashed over to it, lashing out with his sword.

Shadow Kamoshida toppled to the floor, clutching his side. Black liquid oozed from the injury, but not much. It was a shallow wound, one the Shadow could easily survive.

Goro slowly walked up to the Shadow, watching blankly as he looked up at him, shaking.

" **I-Isshiki…"**

Goro held his sword's blade against the Shadow's neck.

" **A-Are you… going to kill me…?"**

"Oh, trust me, I would _love_ to run you through with this sword right now," Goro said, "but if I kill you now, certain questions I have will go unanswered. I will say, though, that if your assault on my sister had been successful, I wouldn't have hesitated to kill you, questions or not."

Shadow Kamoshida stayed silent, glancing fearfully at the serrated blade.

"That being said," Goro said, taking out a very long rope, "I don't intend on leaving just yet."

0~*~0

Out of all the things Ren expected to see, Shadow Kamoshida tied up and dangling upside down from a chandelier by his ankles as a bunch of soldiers tried to get him down wasn't on the list.

"The hell…?" Ryuji whispered.

"I… wouldn't have expected this…" Ann said.

"This has gotta be the work of Black Mask but…" Morgana said, "I wouldn't have expected something so…"

"Childish?" Ren suggested.

"…Something like that."

Ren, acting on a hunch, activated Third Eye, but couldn't see if anyone else was there.

"…Let's keep going."

0~*~0

Goro watched them as they went over to the door in the back of the room, silently following them as they went through. He flattened against the wall as they went into the Treasure Room, peering from behind the doorway.

"Whoa, what is this place!? Holy shit!" Sakamoto said, taking in the huge pile of gold coins around them. "That Treasure thing's gotta be in here!"

Takamaki walked towards the shimmering orb of light in the back of the room. "Hey, what is this? It's… floating in the air."

Morgana hopped onto a golden cup under the light. "Hehe… That's the Treasure. We finally found it!"

"That cloudy thing…?" Ren questioned.

 _So the "core" is the "Treasure"… Seems fitting._

"Simply finding the Treasure isn't enough. We'll need to make it materialize before we can steal it."

"Whaddya mean…?" Sakamoto asked.

"Desires have no physical form by nature. Hence, we'll first need to make the real person aware that their desires are in fact a Treasure. Once they're conscious that their desires might be stolen, the Treasure will finally show itself."

… _Wait, what? That sounds like…_

"But how do we do that?" Takamaki asked.

"We warn them. Tell them, 'We're going to steal your heart.'"

… _What._

"So we're gonna send a calling card!?" Sakamoto exclaimed, sounding like an excited child. "Hoho, that's totally what a phantom thief would do!"

"Once we do that, the Treasure will appear for certain! …I think!"

 _Sounds just like mom's theory…_

Goro had to admit, it made a certain kind of sense. It certainly tied in with what he knew of how cognition affected Palaces. Still, outright telling someone that you intended on taking their "desires"… It seemed like a stupid idea, frankly, and it had been at least part of why Goro had been reluctant to test Wakaba's theory. Well, at least now he wouldn't be the one to take that risk.

"Once we send out the calling card," Morgana said, "there will be no turning back. Just let me know when you're ready. We'll head back to the hideout and send out that calling card!"

Goro, sensing they were ready to leave, dashed into a corner and enshrouded himself in shadows. Once they had left (Goro had a strange feeling that Amamiya had seen him), he stood up and walked into the Treasure Room, gazing through the window at the moon, its image distorted by the water surrounding the castle.

-November, 2014-

Wakaba stared at the orb of light, eyes narrowed and a hand on her chin. Goro was about to ask what she was thinking when she stood on the golden cup under it, putting her head into the light. Goro stared at her, suddenly at a loss for words. After about a minute, she stepped down, looking disappointed.

"What were you doing?" Goro asked.

"I wanted to see if touching it would allow me to see the physical form of the core, but it doesn't seem to be that easy," Wakaba said.

 _That was a little more than just touching it…_

She turned her gaze to the moon outside the window.

"It seems odd for this moon to be here, doesn't it?"

-0~*~0-

By the time they got back to the throne room, the Shadows had managed to remove the rope gagging Shadow Kamoshida, who was now berating them for their incompetence.

When they were halfway across the balcony, another Shadow appeared and yelled, "King Kamoshida! The chapel has been set ablaze!"

Everyone in the room froze.

" **What!?"**

"We tried to capture the intruder responsible, but they seem to have disappeared…"

"Sounds like Black Mask again," Morgana whispered as Shadow Kamoshida began yelling again.

"Do we have to worry about that fire?" Ann asked.

"I don't think so, especially if we leave right now."

The group continued on and Ren climbed up the window, looking down to see a splash of orange hair.

Futaba, in her school uniform and looking around, visibly scared.

"What the…!?" Ryuji yelled.

Futaba looked up and stared at them for a few seconds before running towards the staircase.

Ren jumped down to the floor. "Wait!"

The group chased after her down the stairs and into the room where they had fought the green thing. Just as Ren opened the door, a Shadow materialized in front of Futaba, who screamed and slipped on the floor. Ren leapt over Futaba and onto the Shadow, ripping off its mask and making short work of the Berith and Andras that appeared.

Ren turned back to Futaba, who was still sitting on the floor, staring at them with wide eyes. Ren crouched next to her and slid his mask up to his forehead.

"Futaba, are you okay?"

Futaba blinked. "Amamiya?" She looked at Ann and Ryuji. "So you two must be…"

"How did you get here?" Morgana asked.

Futaba flinched at the sound of his voice. "Huh? What's this cat th- Wait." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Morgana?"

Morgana looked somewhat sullen. "Uh, y-yeah… A-Anyway! How'd you get here?"

"I… I don't know. I was on some stairs and everything suddenly warped and I ended up here."

"Did something weird show up on your phone?" Ryuji asked.

"I wasn't using it… but I'll check."

Futaba pulled out her phone and checked the apps, Ren leaning closer to also get a look. There was no sign of the Meta-Nav.

"…I don't see anything weird," Futaba said.

Before anyone could say anything, several Shadows barged in through the nearby door.

"We gotta go!" Morgana yelled.

Futaba yelped as Ren unthinkingly pulled her into a bridal carry and ran away. He knew they could've taken on the Shadows with no problems, but he didn't want to risk anything with Futaba present.

They stopped running when they got to one of rooms close to where they had entered the tower, and Ren finally put down the flustered and wide-eyed Futaba.

"I think… we lost them…" Ann said, panting.

"Yeah…" Ryuji said, also panting. "Now we just gotta get out of here."

Ren looked over at a door he hadn't noticed earlier and went through it to find a small platform with four torso pillars surrounding a switch.

"Huh… What's this?" Ann said.

Futaba shook herself out of her stupor and followed them. Ren approached the switch and, briefly checking over his shoulder to make sure everyone was there, pulled it. A small gate rose behind them and the platform began descending.

Ryuji turned to Futaba. "So, uh, you're prolly wondering what's going on here, huh?"

Futaba glanced around. "I think I can guess."

"And what's your guess?"

"It's a physical representation of how Kamoshida sees the school, isn't it?" she said, distain creeping into her tone.

"Yeah."

The elevator soon came to a stop and released them into an area that looked more like the lower levels of the castle. Ren grabbed a few valuables and went down some stairs to find what seemed to be a pit… only for the ground to start shaking as another elevator came up, one with a guard on it.

"What!?" Ryuji yelled, his voice cracking. "How's that fair!?"

Ren struck the guard before it could strike him, and the group made relatively short work of the three Succubi that appeared (though Ann getting Brainwashed was inconvenient). Ren grabbed what was in the treasure chest and turned back to go down a hallway, grimacing when he noticed a hallway-encompassing portrait of Kamoshida at the end of it.

"What the heck…?" Ann said. "This is disgusting…"

Futaba's face scrunched up. "This is disturbing."

"Either way, it's kind of strange that this would be a dead end," Morgana said.

Ren ran up to the painting and pushed against its edge, nearly falling over when the painting suddenly rotated. The five of them jumped down and found themselves at the top of the staircase in the entrance hall.

"I didn't realize we would end up here…" Ann said.

Ryuji scanned the room. "Looks like all the solders are gone."

"They must be occupied with the fire at the chapel," Morgana said.

Ren looked back at Futaba, who was silently taking in the room, her gaze particularly drawn to the chandeliers. "If this wasn't made from Kamoshida's cognition," she said, "I'd say it was almost pretty."

"I kinda agree…" Ann mumbled.

They all continued on to the window they had first infiltrated the Palace from, and upon arriving at the castle gate, Futaba looked up at the huge plume of smoke rising into the sky and said, "I'm guessing that's from the fire at the chapel?"

Ren took a few steps back. "Looks like it, since the chapel's around that area."

"That's a lot of smoke…" Ryuji said nervously.

"That fire won't have a lasting effect," Morgana said. "This place should be back to normal by tomorrow."

"Then what was the point?" Futaba mumbled.

After crossing the drawbridge, Ren turned to Futaba and said, "If you have any questions, now would be the best time to ask them."

Futaba looked down. "…Those things you summoned to fight those monsters… What were those?"

"We call 'em Personas," Ryuji said, "and those monsters are Shadows."

"Personas and Shadows…" She looked up at Ren. "What're you guys trying to do in this place?"

The group glanced around at each other, silently asking if it was okay to tell her.

"We're trying to deal with Kamoshida in our own way," Morgana finally said.

"We'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone what we're doing," Ann said, smiling stiffly.

"Don't worry, I know how to keep a secret," Futaba said, tapping her foot on the ground. "Besides, I don't think most people would believe me about something like this."

"Any other questions?" Ren asked.

"What's with the outfits?"

They glanced around at each other again.

"They're… basically what our idea of a rebel looks like," Ren said. "I think."

"…Okay." She looked around one more time. "How did you guys get in here?"

"A smartphone app."

She looked at Ryuji. "Is that why you asked me if something weird had showed up on my phone?"

Ryuji nodded and Futaba pulled out her phone. "…I still don't see anything weird."

"That's prolly for the best…"

"If something weird does show up," Ann said, "let us know right away, okay?"

Futaba nodded. "Can we go back now?"

Ren took out his phone and tapped the button to send them back to the real world, and they materialized in the alleyway in front of the school.

"Looks just the same…" Futaba mumbled before looking back at Ren. "I'm gonna go home before Goro starts looking for me. See ya."

Before they could respond, she walked away.

Once he was sure she was gone, Ryuji said, "This might be kinda obvious, but I don't think she's Black Mask."

"Yeah," Ann agreed, "Black Mask was a lot taller. So unless it's possible to change your height in the Metaverse, I think we can rule her out."

"But there's no doubt that Black Mask is a Shujin student," Morgana said. "We'll need to be extra cautious from now on, at least until we determine whether Black Mask is hostile or not."

"Regardless of who Black Mask is," Ren said, "all that's left is for us to send the calling card."

"When should we do that?" Ann asked.

"Are both of you free tomorrow?" Ren asked.

Ann and Ryuji, in near unison, said, "Of course!"

"We'll meet at the hideout then. The sooner we get this done, the better."

"And well done today!" Morgana added.

0~*~0

Goro restlessly tinkered with the various parts scattered around his desk. There had been an undeniable satisfaction in seeing Kamoshida in such a helpless state, even if was just his Shadow. Still, it felt like too light a retribution for what the man had tried to do, primarily because it wouldn't have an effect on the real Kamoshida.

It was… frustrating, to have extraordinary powers that had limited uses. The only things he had been able to do in the Metaverse that would directly affect other people were mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns; he had only done the former once and hadn't done the latter for over a year. And this whole thing about stealing one's Treasure… Well, first he'd have to see if was actually possible and what the exact effect was… But if it really did work… Then perhaps-

His phone suddenly went off, and he looked at it to see a new text message.

 **Futaba:** Come to my room.

Goro blinked. Futaba never tried to summon him via text whenever they were both home; she would always either knock on his door or yell for him from her room. Regardless, she wanted his presence and he had no reason to refuse.

He left his room and opened her door to find her facing him and reclining in her chair, her legs crossed and hands folded in front of her face. The only light in the room came from the monitors behind her.

Goro stepped forward and closed the door behind him. "You called for me?"

"Today," Futaba said, "I somehow ended up in a physical representation of Kamoshida's cognition of the school as his castle, which was patrolled by knights that turned into monsters called Shadows."

Goro's eyes widened. _I accidentally took her into Kamoshida's castle…_

"I think we both know what that means."

"Mom's research…"

Futaba nodded. "I was rescued by Amamiya, his two friends, and Morgana. I think it would be good to keep an eye on them."

"And you want me to help."

"I think you'd make a pretty good on-field man. I've already hacked into Amamiya's phone, so tracking him'll be easy. I can put a few things on your laptop too, if that would help."

"I think it would. I hope I can be useful to you."

Futaba grinned. "Oh I think you will be."

 _Well that's convenient._


	10. Stealing the Treasure

Ren went downstairs to see Goro behind the counter, prepping for the day.

"Where's Sakura-san?"

"Out for the day," Goro said, smiling. "He might be back this evening."

His smile seemed… stiff.

"…Does this happen often?" Ren asked.

"Leaving me in charge of Leblanc all day? I wouldn't say it's 'often', but it happens on a regular basis."

"…He must trust you a lot."

"But of course. I've been working here since it was opened."

"How long ago was that?"

"About a year."

Ren raised an eyebrow. That was… a much shorter period of time than he had expected.

"Are you heading out for the day?"

Ren blinked. "Uh, yeah. Got a lot to do today."

"Well then," Goro said, still smiling, "don't let me keep you."

Ren crossed to the door and, taking one last look at Goro, left. He wasn't entirely sure if the boy was entirely okay, but Ren didn't think he would accept any offers of help. Besides, there were things he wanted to do before he met with Ann and Ryuji to discuss the calling card.

0~*~0

 **Ryuji:** Man, there's so much I wanna write on the calling card. It's kinda tough figuring out what to say.

 **Ann:** Are you sure you can do this by yourself?

Ren couldn't help but smile at Ryuji's enthusiasm. It made him feel a little less nervous about the whole thing.

He would never admit it, but part of him was absolutely terrified; about them accidentally killing Kamoshida, about him and Ryuji being expelled even if they succeeded, about anything that could possibly go wrong. But they had to do it. And regardless of what happened, he was determined to see this through. Even if he went down, he'd at least go down fighting.

With that in mind, he went into Leblanc, and sure enough, Sakura-san was behind the counter instead of Goro, with an unusually serious expression.

"Hey kid."

He sounded almost… sad?

 _Did… Did he find out about…?_

"You seem different…" Sakura-san said. "Did you always have that scowl on your face?"

 _No, I guess not._

"Did something happen?" Ren asked.

"No, no, it's just…"

Sakura-san stared long and hard at the countertop, as if he was contemplating something. Then he took off his glasses and wiped his forehead, sighing.

"Well, just try to get along with Goro. He doesn't have a lot of people in his life."

Ren nodded and turned to the coffee siphons.

"You wanna make coffee?" Sakura-san asked, brightening up slightly. "Help yourself to the beans on the shelves. I'll show you how each kind of bean is different later."

0~*~0

" _Well, just try to get along with Goro. He doesn't have a lot of people in his life._ "

"Sounds like it's connected," Goro said.

"All right!" Futaba exclaimed with a final tap on the keyboard. "Your laptop's all set up!"

Goro took off the headphones he was wearing. "Thank you for doing this."

Futaba grinned. "Anything to help my on-field man."

She then got up and pranced out of Goro's room. Goro sat down at his desk and opened some of the programs Futaba had installed. There were ones for the bugs at Leblanc, Amamiya's texts messages, and tracking Amamiya's phone on a map. He had declined her offer to put the phone-tracker program on his phone. As convenient as it would be, he didn't want her to ask about the Meta-Nav on his phone, especially since Amamiya and his friends had almost certainly shown her the Navs on their own phones.

Goro began looking through Amamiya's texts, raising an eyebrow over the discussion of the calling card.

 _I hope it's not too obvious that Sakamoto wrote it…_

Goro then heard the distant sound of Sojiro announcing he was home. He minimized the spy programs he had open and waited for the sound of Sojiro going up the stairs to get up and open his bedroom door just enough for the man to notice, not looking at him.

"…She's the same as always," Sojiro mumbled.

Goro closed his door.

0~*~0

Futaba stared at the window displaying the apps on Goro's phone, the red and black eye seeming to stare back at her.

 _Now to see how long it takes for him to realize that he can't deny being able to go into the cognitive world…_

As much as Futaba would've loved to directly confront him about it, she knew him well enough to know that doing so would likely just result in him refusing to answer any of her questions and avoiding any discussion of anything related to the topic, which would make keeping full tabs on Amamiya and his friends even harder. Her best bet right now was to wait, either for Goro to tell her on his own or for him to realize that he wasn't as good at hiding things as he seemed to think he was.

She glanced at the window showing Amamiya's texts.

 _A calling card for Kamoshida… I wonder what that'll look like…_

0~*~0

"What on Earth is _this_?" Goro asked.

"Some kinda calling card," Mari said. "It was already here this morning. I got some pretty good pictures of it too."

"The wording's kinda… juvenile," Futaba said.

Goro had to agree about it seeming somewhat childish, but he wasn't particularly surprised given what he knew about Sakamoto (though he had to admit that arranging the cards into the characters of Kamoshida's name wasn't a bad touch). As Takamaki walked up to the bulletin board and read the calling card aloud, her expression indicated that she had similar thoughts. Still, as long as it had the intended effect on Kamoshida, he supposed the specifics didn't matter.

As Takamaki walked over to Amamiya and Sakamoto, Goro and Futaba attempted to discreetly listen in on their conversation.

"Not bad, eh? I looked up a bunch of similar stuff online for reference," Sakamoto said.

 _Just what did you find that led to it looking like that?_

"Your logo's a little lacking, too," Morgana said.

… _Can't argue with that._

"I hope he doesn't think I was involved with this," Futaba whispered.

Goro stiffened. He… honestly hadn't considered that. If Kamoshida thought that Futaba was involved with the calling card, what would he-

Kamoshida came down the hallway towards the board, and Futaba dashed away and out of sight.

Kamoshida looked over the calling card, eyes widening. "Wh-What is this!? Who's responsible for this!? Was it you!?"

The students who had gathered ran away as Kamoshida approached Goro.

"Where's your sister!?"

Goro put on an innocent, confused look. "My sister has absolutely nothing to do with this."

Kamoshida growled and walked over to Amamiya's group. "Was it you two!?"

"What if it was?" Amamiya said nonchalantly, fiddling with his hair.

Kamoshida looked ready to rip his head off. "Don't give me that. Well, whatever. It's not a problem. You'll be expelled soon enough anyway."

Goro stiffened again as Kamoshida was briefly replaced by his Shadow, daring them to steal the Treasure as Medjed told him that the security level in Kamoshida's Palace had skyrocketed.

As Morgana reiterated that today was their only chance to take the Treasure, Goro realized he was honestly excited about what was going to happen.

0~*~0

The red lighting and heartbeat sound typical of Palaces with high security levels was present as he expected, but so was a sort of anxious energy he had never felt before.

 _Is this an effect of the calling card?_

Goro followed Amamiya's group from the safe room near the throne room… and noticed the security camera near the now-open doors to the throne room.

 _That wasn't there before… Is that from Futaba blackmailing him?_

"Hey, there's nobody here…" Sakamoto said.

"They must've gotten reassigned elsewhere," Morgana said. "Let's grab the Treasure while they're gone!"

…That was somewhat concerning.

Amamiya went into the Treasure Room and opened the doors…

…To reveal a giant crown floating where the core had been.

"Aw yeah!" Morgana exclaimed. "The Treasure has appeared!"

 _It actually worked… Looks like you were right, mom…_

Goro stared at the crown. It was, at least from this distance, actually nice-looking. Even with the female symbols on it.

 _So this is what-_

"T-Treasure…" Morgana said reverently, swaying side-to-side.

… _What's with-_

Morgana suddenly leapt onto the Treasure, rubbing against it while meowing excitedly.

"That's not catnip…" Amamiya said hesitantly.

 _Wh-What the… Is… Is Morgana…? Actually, I don't want to know._

"All right, that's enough, cat!" Sakamoto said.

That seemed to get Morgana's attention, as it jumped off the crown (Goro was slightly miffed at the lack of explanation for Morgana's behavior and slightly curious about why Morgana believed it was human).

As the three human members of the group began carrying the apparently heavy crown, Goro overheard Morgana's mumbling.

"To think it'd go so well… I even found three Persona users in the process… I made the right choice in making a deal with you!"

 _Just what is this thing planning?_

Goro retreated to the balcony overlooking the throne room as they advanced, watching them from over the railing.

 _This feels… too easy. There's no way a Palace ruler, especially one like Kamoshida, would just let someone take the source of their distortion._

Sure enough, he heard Takamaki's voice cheering for Kamoshida seconds before a volleyball slammed into the crown, knocking it out of the group's hands. Shadow Kamoshida sailed through the air, landed in front of the throne, and the crown shrunk and returned to his hand as Cognitive Takamaki ran out and clung to his side.

" **I'm not letting anyone take this!"** Shadow Kamoshida said, bouncing the crown in his hand.

Goro quietly listened in on the confrontation. He had to admit, the Shadow had a point: Kamoshida never would've gotten away with what he had been doing for so long if it hadn't been for the rest of the school protecting him (or maybe he would've done a better job of hiding it if he felt he had to). Doing something to the principal had crossed Goro's mind more than once, but he never went through with it; Kobayakawa was part of Shido's conspiracy, and any replacement would more likely than not be more competent and morally worse.

A black and red aura surrounded Shadow Kamoshida as his voice distorted even more, and Goro braced himself as the Shadow began to morph into a giant, naked monstrosity with horns, four arms, and a giant tongue that splattered saliva all over the room. He wasn't sure what was creepier: Kamoshida's independently moving eyes or the trophy with moving girls' legs sticking out of it that had appeared in front of him.

" **I'm allowed to do whatever the hell I want!"**

… _I wasn't expecting this, yet I can't say I'm surprised._

Takamaki all but screamed in disgust as Sakamoto and Morgana stared in bewilderment.

Amamiya, however, just stared down the monster and said, "Let's finish this."

The others steeled themselves as Shadow Kamoshida roared in anger. They unleashed their full might upon him, and Goro couldn't help but wince in sympathy whenever someone was pelted by the volleyballs launched by the slaves chained to Shadow Kamoshida's throne.

(Goro cringed in disgust and mild disturbment when Shadow Kamoshida ate one of the pairs of legs from the trophy. And when he put the Cognitive Takamaki in his mouth.)

As the group surrounded Shadow Kamoshida after destroying the trophy, Goro got the sense that he should've been down there with them, fighting the Shadow of the man that had tried to sexually assault his sister. But…

The group below unleashed an All-Out Attack, interrupting Goro's thoughts. Shadow Kamoshida wilted for a bit before straightening up.

" **I'm the king! If I'm not, then who is!?"**

Morgana whispered something to Amamiya, who slid over and whispered something to Sakamoto, who dashed over to one of the pillars supporting the balcony Goro was on, out of his sight. As curious as Goro was, he didn't move to see what Sakamoto was doing; it would risk him being spotted by Shadow Kamoshida and potentially expose Sakamoto as well.

After a few minutes, however…

" **Hey you! What do you think** _ **you're**_ **doing!? I'll make you run laps around the school if you try anything funny!"**

Goro froze up, fearing that Shadow Kamoshida had seen him until he realized that he wasn't quite looking in his direction. He then heard Sakamoto say something before rejoining the group.

 _Looks like he spotted Sakamoto…_

" **How dare you keep defying me… Slaves! Bring over you-know-what!"**

The slaves chained to the throne were unhooked and they ran off somewhere behind the group.

" **Time for my killshot from when I was active and rockin' it!"**

… _Killshot?_

The others seemed to reach the same conclusion as him, as they quickly scattered and shielded themselves as the slaves brought back a huge volleyball. The slaves threw the volleyball into the air and Shadow Kamoshida spiked it towards Amamiya. The volleyball exploded when it hit the floor, knocking Amamiya into one of the pillars.

Goro's fists tightened. They weren't doing well. If they died here, it would be on him for not doing anything to help. Goro glanced at the crown.

 _So they're aiming for that, right?_

Goro crawled over and perched on a section of the railing out of Shadow Kamoshida's sight, calculating if he'd be able to get to the other side of the balcony.

He poised himself to jump…

…Leapt towards the crown, knocking it off…

…Jumped towards the railing…

…And grabbed onto the baluster, pulling himself up and turning to see Shadow Kamoshida desperately grasping at where the crown had been.

" **NOOO! My… My precious!"**

All the fight seemed to leave Shadow Kamoshida, who put up little resistance as the group whaled on him, and he soon collapsed and shrunk back down to his normal, humanlike appearance.

The group approached the now-normal sized crown… only for Shadow Kamoshida to run up and grab the crown himself. The group briefly chased after him, cornering him on a balcony overlooking the outside of the tower. He listened intently as they talked, feeling some kind of respect as Takamaki's voice lowered into something dangerous.

"Scared? Right now, you're seeing the same view that Shiho did." Takamaki stepped forward. "I'm sure she was scared too… except she had no choice but to jump. What will you do? Will you jump? Or would you rather die here?"

Carmen materialized behind Takamaki, fireballs appearing in her hands. Shadow Kamoshida tossed the Treasure to Amamiya after one of the fireballs was launched at the wall near him. Goro was admittedly slightly relieved when Takamaki chose not to kill him; as much as the man would've deserved it, it would've been disappointing to see him have a mental shutdown after having another possibility for cognitive manipulation dangled in front of Goro.

Shadow Kamoshida disappeared into light, promising to repent, and the Palace began shaking. Goro waited until the group had run out of the throne room before summoning Medjed to teleport him out of the Palace.

0~*~0

Goro rematerialized in the alleyway, and immediately hid farther in. The group rematerialized where he had been about a minute later, panting heavily and looking exhausted.

Sakamoto pulled out his phone. "Look at the nav!"

" _The destination has been deleted,_ " the voice of the Meta-Nav said.

 _Oh yeah, something like that happened back then, didn't it…?_

"What about the Treasure!?" Morgana yelled.

Amamiya took a gold medal out of his pocket.

 _A medal? …Oh, I see…_

The group quickly reached the same conclusion. They continued talking, and Goro, sensing no reason to stay, took his leave. He pulled out his phone to check the Meta-Nav himself and sure enough, Kamoshida's Palace was gone.

 _So there's at least that… If it really does work, then maybe…_

0~*~0

Out of all the things Ren had expected to happen, Black Mask actually helping them wasn't one of them (well, he hadn't expected the security camera that hadn't been there before either, but that didn't matter as much). As much as Ren was grateful for it, a part of him couldn't help but feel slightly offended. Sure, Ren had messed up a little in not distracting Shadow Kamoshida enough, but it wasn't _that_ bad of a mistake.

Still, it was slightly reassuring to know that Black Mask was invested in ensuring they stayed alive.

"Hey," Morgana whispered.

"Yeah?"

"What are you thinking about?"

Ren paused in front of Leblanc's door. "…I have a hunch about who Black Mask is, but I'll need more information."

"Someone dangerous?"

"…I don't know."

0~*~0

 **Goro:** I think Amamiya and his friends have made their move.

 **Futaba:** Oh?

 **Goro:** I saw him holding what looked like an Olympic gold medal, saying something about it being the "source of Kamoshida's distorted desires."

 **Futaba:** …Seems appropriate.

 **Futaba:** Any idea what they'll do next?

 **Goro:** Just waiting and seeing what happens. Hopefully something will happen before the board meeting.

 **Futaba:** May 2nd, right?

 **Goro:** …You're not planning something, are you?

 **Futaba:** Nothing that I can't do from home.

 **Goro:** …Just don't do anything reckless.

 **I don't think that keeping an update schedule of one chapter per month is going to be viable for me, much as I dislike that.**


	11. Waiting Again

"Half the school thinks you're a violent criminal and the other half thinks you're a violent vigilante," Mari said. "Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, I'll let you decide."

Ren gave a noncommittal shrug. It had been a few days since they took Kamoshida's Treasure, and not much had happened since then. Mostly him just trying to get money from various places. And today Mari had texted him and asked if he wanted to hang out. And now here they were at Shibuya Central Street, just wandering around, watching the crowd.

"Have you written anything about that calling card?" Ren asked.

"A little, but I'm gonna wait to see if anything big comes from it first." She paused. "You know, I wasn't sure if it was something to take seriously, but given that Kamoshida apparently put himself under suspension shortly afterwards… Well, it'd be a little disappointing if nothing else happened."

"We'll have to see."

"We'll have to see."

They stood in silence for a while, watching the crowd around them.

"So how are you holding up?" she asked. "Y'know, with the whole…"

Ren shrugged. "I'm holding up. How 'bout you?"

"I'm okay. I'm more worried about Isshiki-kun. He's been… quiet lately. And his smiles seem faker."

"If you say so."

"…If you get a chance, and if he'll let you talk to him, please let him know if you'll be there for him."

Ren nodded.

They stared into the crowd a bit longer before Mari said, "So how is it? At Leblanc, I mean."

Ren shrugged. "Could be a lot worse. I think the owner's starting to warm up to me. He's offered to show me how to make coffee."

Mari gave a small chuckle. "I've been there several times, but I've never had the coffee there. Only the curry."

"Any particular reason why?"

"I have no need or desire to become addicted to caffeine. And I think trying coffee when I'm not used to stuff like that would just be unpleasant. Like carbonated drinks." Her face scrunched up. "That stuff's like needles poking all over the inside of your mouth."

Ren gave a noncommittal grunt.

"…You're not very talkative, are you?"

"I can be."

Mari lightly punched him on the arm, smiling. "Asshole."

Ren smiled as well. Mari really did seem like a nice person so far. The idea of having friends at Shujin that didn't know about the Metaverse was appealing, and Mari was among the few who didn't judge him for his criminal record.

…Granted, now that he thought about it, her being willing to spend time with him might've partially been out of pity for how most of the other students treated him, but he'd take it.

"I gotta admit, though," Mari said, frowning, "I do wish that Sakura-san quit smoking, especially around Isshiki-kun. …Though now that I think about it, I'm not sure if I've ever seen him smoking while Isshiki-kun was around…"

As she continued talking, Ren's attention focused on her eyes. _They're about the same shade of blue as Morgana's… No matter how much I think about it, it just doesn't seem natural…_

Mari jumped as a harsh ringtone sounded. She hastily dug through her bag and pulled out a black flip phone, her face falling as she opened it.

"Sorry, I have to take this. I'll see you later!" she yelled as she ran off.

Ren stared after her, blinking. _What was that about?_

After a few minutes of waiting, Ren decided to head back. The sun was setting and he didn't have any other reason to stick around. When he got to Station Square, his attention was quickly caught by the sight of none other than Goro himself, standing where Ren would sometimes see the speech-giving man, staring blankly at the ground, his eyes seeming glazed over and lifeless.

Ren walked up to him. "Senpai?"

Goro _jumped_ at Ren's voice, quickly calming down upon seeing him. "Oh… It's you… Did you need something?"

"I wanted to talk to you."

Goro glanced around. "…I suppose now would be as good a time as any. Not out here, though…"

"I know a place."

0~*~0

The situation felt uncannily familiar. Ren knew why, of course; sitting in a Big Bang Burger restaurant as he tried to get a near stranger to open up to him. Even the way the light came through the windows seemed identical.

Goro gave a dry chuckle. "A Big Bang Burger, huh…? Not what I was expecting but you could've done worse."

"You've had something on your mind since last week," Ren said.

"Cutting right to the chase, huh?" Goro looked down at the table, fidgeting with his napkin. "…Do you know… about what happened to my and Futaba's mom?"

Ren blinked. Had he heard about what had happened to their mom? …Had he heard _anything at all_ about their mom? "I… don't think so."

"You could ask any given junior or senior at Shujin about what happened, though your best bet would probably be Sakamoto or Mari Koizumi." Goro's hand stilled. "…We found out about Kamoshida's true character not long after I transferred to Shujin. We'd had our suspicions beforehand, but there wasn't much we could do. I didn't have many options for places I could go, especially with how quickly we were trying to get me out of my old high school. There weren't many places with openings in the middle of the school year."

Goro paused, taking a sip of his water. "When Mom found out… well, needless to say, she didn't want Futaba going anywhere near Shujin. I shared her conviction, and the more I heard about what Kamoshida was doing, the stronger it got. But…"

Goro slumped back against the booth seat. "About a year ago, Mom was in an accident. Futaba has always been an isolated person, but losing Mom almost destroyed her. If it wasn't for me, it _would_ have. That she's even in high school right now is practically a miracle."

Ren briefly felt the urge to ask for clarification, but Goro kept talking.

"When I found out she wanted to go to Shujin, I tried to talk her out of it. I told her everything I knew about Kamoshida and what the school was doing to protect him. But she didn't think she'd be able to go to school unless there was someone she already knew there. And since I'm the only high-school-aged person she really knows…"

"…You'd only be there for one more year."

"That's what I told her. She said, 'If I can make it through one year of high school, I think I'll be okay.' I… really don't think it works like that, but there was ultimately nothing I could do. It wouldn't look good if Futaba stopped going to school, to put it mildly." Goro leaned back over the table, clutching his napkin. "Futaba… is all I have. If something bad happened to her, something that I could- _should_ have prevented, I'd never forgive myself."

"And because she went to Shujin, something bad almost happened to her."

Goro slumped. "…When Sakamoto sent me that text… I've never felt so panicked in my life. I was afraid one of my worst fears had come true, all because I hadn't tried hard enough to keep her away from Shujin. And… I think I'm the reason Kamoshida went after her."

Ren quirked up an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"He hates me, but he's done very little against me. At first, it was because of Mom, then he apparently thought my past would make good blackmail material. He tried to force me to join the volleyball team."

"Mari told me about that."

Goro looked up, eyebrows raised. "She did?"

"Apparently, whatever face you pulled was enough to scare him off." _If it was the face I saw in that book, then no wonder…_

Goro gave a small smile. "I did that every time he tried to catch me alone. I was always surprised by how well it seemed to work."

"What are you gonna do going forward?"

"Well, first we'll have to see what comes of that calling card addressed to Kamoshida."

Ren nodded.

"For your sake as well."

Ren blinked.

Goro stared intently at him. "To be honest, you… interest me. In a way that few other people have been able to. It would be unfortunate to have that suddenly taken awaybecause of an extremely petty gym teacher."

 _I'm… not sure what to make of that._

Goro plastered on a smile and picked his bag up off the floor. "Well, it was nice talking to you, Amamiya, but I promised to help Sakura-san this evening, so I must be going now."

Ren also picked up his bag. "I was gonna head there after this, so why don't we go together?"

Goro's smile faltered. "Oh, uh, in that case…"

0~*~0

Sakura-san hadn't been expecting them to come in together, if his raised eyebrow and quizzical expression were anything to go by. It wasn't until he noticed Ren lingering in front of the counter that he spoke.

"You need something?"

"Show me how to make coffee?" Ren asked.

"Oh, sure," he said, motioning towards an apron.

Ren listened quietly as Sakura-san told him the basics of customer service (and threatened to kick him out if he served a bad cup of coffee) while Goro messed around in the kitchenette behind him.

The door opened and Sakura-san's expression morphed into a scowl when he saw the newcomer. "Oh… _You…_ "

The newcomer, a cheerful-looking middle-aged man, seemed unperturbed by Sakura-san's obvious hostility, grinning. "Hello there! It's been a while, Sakura-san! Glad to see the shop's still doing well. It's a real nice location. Right by the station and everything."

"Your order?" Sakura-san asked sternly.

"No small talk? That's cold. Oh, but this smell… Sure brings back memories! You're still making that curry, huh? That reminds me, how're her kids doing?"

"Your order, sir?"

"Hmph, so pushy. I just wanted to drop in and say hi, but I can see that you're annoyed. I'll come by again some other time."

With that, the man turned and left.

Sakura-san sighed. "Ugh… It's been a while since he came by."

"There was something off about that guy…" Ren said.

Sakura-san smirked. "Heh, I guess you have an eye for some things after all. Anyway, if you have time for questions, you have time to be learning about bean types."

As he continued talking, Ren glanced back at Goro. He had moved to the back of the kitchenette, arms drawn up and body rigid.

 _Is Goro afraid of that guy?_

After a few minutes, the clock on the wall chimed. Sakura-san looked over at it, eyebrows raised. "Oh, is it time already? Let's start closing up. And no slacking off, you got it?"

"Of course, Sakura-san," Ren said.

"No need to be so formal with me." Sakura-san froze, eyes wide, before straightening up. "I-I mean it."

Ren blinked. "…If you insist, Sojiro."

(He could almost _hear_ Goro rolling his eyes behind him.)

0~*~0

"Is everything all right, Isshi-kun?"

Goro looked up at Haru, who was wringing her hands.

"Of course. Why do you ask?"

"You've been digging at the same spot for several minutes."

Goro blinked. He had dug down to the bottom of the planter and exposed an inch-wide circle.

It had been a few days since Kamoshida's Palace had fallen and part of Goro's mind was _still_ berating him for assisting Amamiya's group in the way that he had. The group could've taken Shadow Kamoshida by themselves, it said. There had been no need to blatantly expose himself like that. He had been hoping to distract himself by helping Haru with gardening, but it apparently wasn't working.

"…To be honest, I've been thinking a lot about Kamoshida. Specifically, about that calling card that was left for him. Quite an odd thing for someone to do, serious or not."

"…Is that… all?"

Goro's smile twitched. "What do you mean?"

Haru stayed silent, staring at him with an intensity not reflected in the rest of her demeanor.

Goro sighed. Leave it to her to see through him…

"I can't tell you everything…" he said, "but I have a hunch as to who those 'Phantom Thieves of Hearts' are."

Haru's eyes widened slightly. "You do? …Are they dangerous?"

Goro filled in the hole he had made and stood up. "Not to people like us. We're nothing like Kamoshida."

"Are you… going to confront them?"

"I'm not currently planning on doing so, at least directly. To be honest, I'm not quite sure if I should. I don't have anything I would ask of them and it might only make them paranoid of me. Besides, there won't be much point to confronting them if this 'change of heart' doesn't work out."

Haru nodded, looking away. "…How's Futaba-san? I heard about what almost happened to her…"

Goro smiled. "Oh she's fine, just fine. I even asked her if she'd-"

The door to the roof opened and Futaba ran out. "Sorry I'm late!"

As Haru began instructing Futaba on watering, Goro noticed the wide-eyed, sheepish look she kept giving him.

… _She was listening in on us, wasn't she?_

-Mid-April, 2015-

Goro stared out over the school yard, his fingers gripping the fence tight enough to turn white. The entire school knew of what happened to Wakaba, Kamoshida was almost certainly going to use Goro's past against him, and Futaba… Futaba was…

"Isshiki-kun?"

Goro jolted and turned. Standing there was Haru Okumura, staring at him apprehensively.

"Okumura-san… Did you want something from me?"

"I… heard about what happened to your mother."

Goro sighed. He didn't want pity from her of all people, but he felt too drained to get properly angry at her. Besides, he didn't want a repeat of what had happened with that first-year.

"…What about it?"

"Have you been able to grieve properly?"

… _Huh?_

Goro opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. He took a shaky inhale and tried again, but his throat was tight and his eyes were watering and oh god, he was going to start crying, wasn't he?

He wasn't sure if it was from her question or if his emotions just happened to overflow at that moment, but Goro slid down to his knees and started sobbing, trying to hide his face in his hands. The pain in his chest was amplified by the humiliation of showing so much vulnerability to a relative stranger, but he couldn't make himself stop. After a few minutes, during which Okumura was silent, Goro's crying subsided and he turned to look back at her, nearly jumping when he saw she was now kneeling next to him, smiling at him with sad eyes.

Goro slumped against the concrete wall. "…What do you want from me?"

"I wanted to see how you were doing. She always sounded very important to you…"

Goro almost laughed. The idea that someone of her social status would be genuinely concerned about someone like him seemed absurd. Everything about their "relationship" was absurd. Any kind of personal association between a CEO's daughter and a politician's bastard son was unheard of at best and scandalous at worst. The entire reason he had even approached her was to try to get clues on the keywords for her father's Palace. And yet…

"I… I should've…"

"Please don't blame yourself for what happened, Isshiki-kun."

"You don't get to say that… when you weren't there."

"…It's true that I didn't see what happened for myself… but I know that it was an acci-"

"You don't know what happened."

If she had been there, she would've understood because he could've saved Wakaba he _should've_ saved her _he had be-_

"Isshiki-kun. You are my precious friend, and if there's anything I can do, even if it's just to listen, I'll be glad to do it."

Goro gave a watery chuckle. "…Could you just… stay here, for a while?"

"Of course."

"…Thanks."

-0~*~0-

 **Takemi:** How's the medication I gave you working?

 **Goro:** My dreams now look like some kind of moving abstract painting.

 **Takemi:** …That's unexpected. Any change in content?

 **Goro:** Given that I'm now dreaming about being burned alive and dissolved in acid in addition to the usual material, I'd say no.

 **Takemi:** …

 **Takemi:** Well… Let me know if it gets worse. If it does, I might have you go off the medication early.

 **Goro:** Sure.

Goro felt something tug on his arm and looked down to see Futaba looking up at him with wide, concerned eyes. He smiled as he put his phone back in his bag. "Yes?"

"…They've gotten that bad?"

Goro, unsure what other expression to have, kept smiling. "Don't worry about it. It's my problem, not yours."

"…Why are you even taking stuff for them in the first place?"

"They hit a point where my normal means of dealing with them were ineffective, and they were too much of a hindrance to ignore."

"How so?"

Goro glanced around. Nobody else at the station seemed to be paying attention to them. "Reliving the same events over and over is… draining."

Futaba looked away. "…Oh."

Their train arrived a few minutes later. Moments after they got on and the doors closed, Goro stiffened. " _Shit._ "

Futaba looked up at him. "What? What's wrong?"

"I forgot about Niijima's birthday."

"…Save the sudden swearing for serious situations."

0~*~0

Ren fidgeted with his bag straps. Tomorrow was the board meeting, and he still hadn't heard anything new about Kamoshida.

"Come on, man, it'll be okay," Ryuji said, though given the way his leg was bouncing, he was just as nervous.

"…What's between you and Mari?"

Ryuji's eyebrows went up. "Huh? Oh, we're just friends."

"She seems a little hands-on for a friend."

"Yeah, she's kinda… socially oblivious, but she's nice. She and Ann were the only people to visit me after Kamoshida… Y'know."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Isshiki-senpai sent me a text, but that was it. Mari and I couldn't hang out often 'cause she was always pretty busy, but she tried. I've heard that it's because of her that the rumors about you aren't as bad as they used to be."

Ren looked down at the counter. "I… haven't really been paying attention."

"I don't blame ya."

Their ramen orders were finally put in front of them and Ren waited for the noodles to cool as Ryuji snarfed his down.

"By the way…"

Ryuji put his bowl down. "Yeah?"

"What happened to Isshiki-senpai's mom?"

"Oh yeah, you wouldn't know about that…" Ryuji's expression turned downcast. "His mom got hit by a car right in front of him."

Ren whipped his head to face Ryuji.

"Happened not long before I started goin' to Shujin. I heard that she survived but went into a coma. I dunno how she's doin' now."

"How'd you find out?"

"Isshiki yelled at me when I asked if he was okay, so Mari told me what happened. Said she saw it herself."

"…Oh."

"I can only imagine what that must've been like for him and his sister…" he said in a low voice. "I hope their dad really is an okay guy…"

"Their dad?"

"I talked to him after I found out what happened and he said he was staying with his dad, and I assume his sister also lives with them. All he really mentioned about the guy is that he smokes."

Ren blinked. _Could he have been referring to…?_

Ryuji looked at Ren's untouched bowl. "C'mon man, eat up before your ramen gets cold."

0~*~0

Futaba bounced her knee, staring but not focusing on her computer screen. Finally, she grabbed her phone and started typing.

 **?:** Tomorrow's the board meeting.

 **?:** What do you intend on doing?

 **Kamoshida:** I'm going to confess my crimes.

 **?:** Yes you will. ALL of your crimes. Including what you did with Sakamoto and the track team. And then you will repent.

 **Kamoshida:** I will. I'll tell them everything.

 **?:** Good. And don't mention Goro and Futaba Isshiki by name or that this conversation ever happened.

 **Kamoshida:** I won't.

 **?:** Good.

Futaba deleted the thread from both their phones and sighed. She peered over the back of her chair at Goro, lying asleep on her bed.

 _I'll get answers one of these days…_

 **I was so burned out on this for a month, I didn't think I would finish it…**


End file.
